British fintech Railsr sets sights on growth after £20m funding boost

A British fintech company that was forced into insolvency just over six months ago has secured a multimillion-pound funding boost as it sets its sights on a more measured growth path.

Sky News understands that Railsr, the trading name of Embedded Finance, will announce in the coming days that it has struck a deal with investors to raise $24m (£19.8m).

The funding is predominantly from existing investors, including D Squared Capital and Moneta Venture Capital, which people close to Railsr said reflected their confidence in the company’s growth potential and strategy.

The announcement of a new capital injection, which is understood to be partly in the form of convertible loans, will come just seven months after the company underwent a pre-pack administration to facilitate its survival.

Railsr specialises in the provision of so-called embedded finance solutions such as banking services, credit cards and digital wallets.

However, it became a victim of aggressive over-expansion, running into serious regulatory issues just as funding markets for technology companies had dried up.

It has since appointed Philippe Morel, an experienced fintech executive, as its CEO – adding him to a leadership team which already included Rick Haythornthwaite, the former Mastercard chairman.

Mr Haythornthwaite, who will assume the chairmanship of taxpayer-backed lender NatWest Group next year, was parachuted into Railsr to help clean the company up and restore the confidence of regulators.

“With this substantial new investment secured in a much tougher fundraising environment, we are very well placed to grow sustainably,” Mr Morel said.

“It has been a very challenging period for the sector. Many companies grew too fast, failing to adequately develop internal controls, and then had to scale back quickly in a difficult economic environment.”

He added that having been among the first companies to face such challenges, it was now well-positioned to emerge from them ahead of many of its peers.

“We have a proven product and business model, which is operating in a sector with much higher barriers to entry due to a tougher regulatory and fundraising environment,” Mr Morel said.

The company, which also ran into regulatory difficulties in Lithuania, has now established an entity in France, where it intends to apply for an Electronic Money Institution licence.

It would then use that to passport across Europe, either directly or through a network of partners, according to people close to its plans.

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Mr Haythornthwaite, chairman of Embedded Finance, said: “The company is a core part of the ecosystem for other fintechs and the sector is one of the UK’s key growth areas.

“It is set to play an important part in ensuring the UK remains a leading fintech hub.”

Dan Adler, managing director of D Squared Capital, said the company was “a market leader in the UK and presents significant growth potential in Europe”.

The valuation at which the new funding had been raised was unclear on Thursday.

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