Invest in the Infrastructure Behind Better Payment Provider Matching
A new layer between merchants and payment providers. Payments Marketplace is building the intelligent pre-underwriting and matching layer for the global payments ecosystem.
Every day, merchants apply to payment providers that may never be able to accept their business. PSP underwriting teams spend valuable time reviewing unsuitable applications, requesting missing information and ultimately declining merchants who were routed to the wrong provider.
Payments Marketplace changes that process. Our platform evaluates a merchant's business profile against PSP acceptance parameters before a formal application is made, identifies potential blockers, ranks compatible providers and enables an anonymised introduction to the PSP.
The Technology is Built
Payments Marketplace is not a concept or an early prototype. The platform has been engineered as a production-ready, multi-sided marketplace.
- Proprietary rules and matching engine
- Merchant pre-flight assessment
- PSP-specific acceptance parameters
- Anonymous deal matching
- PSP underwriting & deal-flow portal
- ISO and broker infrastructure
- AI-powered website & compliance analysis
- Multi-provider matching
- Commercial deal-fee infrastructure
- API and white-label architecture
- Data and analytics infrastructure
- GDPR and privacy controls
- High-performance backend architecture
Domains and Marks Already Secured
The naming around the platform is held rather than rented. Every domain below is registered to Payments Marketplace Ltd and transfers with the company, as does the registered trademark.
| payments-marketplace.com | Primary trading domain and platform host |
| payments-marketplace.app | Defensive registration on the .app |
| payments-marketplace.co.uk | Defensive registration on the UK domain |
| paymentsmarketplace.app | Defensive registration against the unhyphenated spelling |
| paymentsmarketplace.co.uk | Defensive registration against the unhyphenated spelling on the UK domain |
| pre-vet.app | Defensive registration against the hyphenated spelling |
| prevetted.app | Defensive registration against the past-tense form |
| pre-vet.com | Defensive registration on the .com |
| takecards.co.uk | Held with a registered UK trademark in Takecards |
| aiagent.tel | Held for the agent-facing interface |
| opaq.io | Original development and engineering domain |
The defensive registrations exist so a competitor cannot trade a near-identical spelling against the primary mark, and so a mistyped address still reaches us rather than someone else.
A Genuine Payments Problem
Payment providers need merchants. Merchants need payment providers. But the existing application process is often inefficient.
The Merchant Struggle
A merchant can spend days or weeks completing an application only to discover that its industry, geography, processing history, business model or risk profile falls outside the provider's appetite.
The Underwriter Bottleneck
At the same time, PSP underwriting teams are required to process applications that should never have reached them, wasting manual triage resources on non-starter deals.
Payments Marketplace introduces a qualification and matching layer before that process begins.
We believe the future of payment provider acquisition is not simply more applications — it is better applications.
A Scalable Marketplace Model
Payments Marketplace is designed as a capital-light marketplace that monetises successful merchant-provider connections.
Free for Merchants
Merchants use the platform free of charge to test eligibility and receive anonymous pre-flight scores.
PSP Deal Fees
PSPs pay a success fee when they accept a pre-vetted merchant introduction, structured around processing volume.
Capital-Light Scaling
Zero balance-sheet or operational payment processing risk. Payments Marketplace does not hold merchant funds or process transactions.
The Network Opportunity
The real value of Payments Marketplace increases exponentially as the two-sided marketplace grows.
More PSPs create more matching opportunities for merchants. More merchants create more valuable deal flow for PSPs. More completed introductions generate more data, which continuously refines matching, routing, and marketplace intelligence.
Over time, Payments Marketplace has the potential to become not simply a merchant acquisition platform, but the definitive source of intelligence about which payment providers are actually compatible with which businesses.
Built for PSPs, ISOs and Payment Platforms
Payments Marketplace is deliberately designed to operate across all major stakeholders in the payments ecosystem.
PSPs & Acquirers
Receive structured, anonymised and better-targeted merchant opportunities aligned with their exact acceptance parameters.
ISOs & Brokers
Gain access to a scalable mechanism for identifying suitable payment providers without repeatedly approaching providers that cannot support a particular merchant.
Payment Platforms
Use Payments Marketplace's technology and APIs to embed provider matching and pre-underwriting directly into their own workflows.
Merchants
Understand their provider compatibility before committing time to a formal application, preserving processing reputations.
A Platform, Not Simply a Lead-Generation Business
The distinction is important. Traditional lead generation sells access to prospective customers. Payments Marketplace is designed to understand the characteristics of the merchant, evaluate them against provider criteria and determine where a genuine commercial fit may exist. The long-term opportunity is to become the qualification and intelligence layer sitting between merchant demand and payment-provider capacity.
Independent AI Valuation Assessment
An independent AI-assisted valuation analysis of the Payments Marketplace technology, business model, market opportunity and commercial position.
Assessment Factors Considered:
- Completeness of technology platform
- Proprietary software & IP
- Marketplace architecture
- PSP and ISO functionality
- Addressable payments market
- Scalability of commercial model
- Network-effect potential
- Technology replacement cost
- Comparable fintech & payments businesses
- Emerging PSP commercial interest
- Future recurring & transaction revenue
- Domain name valuations
Where the Opportunity Becomes Considerably Larger
The current valuation is not the destination. It is the starting point.
Once the marketplace demonstrates sustained PSP participation, recurring deal flow and measurable revenue, valuation can increasingly be based on commercial performance rather than development and replacement value.
PSP Network
Merchant Introductions
Revenue Expansion
Distribution Channels
Why Now?
Payments continues to become more fragmented across geographies, payment methods, and risk tiers.
Merchants operate across more countries, currencies, payment methods and risk categories. PSPs increasingly specialise by geography, vertical, risk appetite and payment method.
At the same time, payment orchestration and multi-PSP strategies are becoming increasingly important. But orchestration can only route a transaction to a provider that is capable of accepting the merchant in the first place.
The Investment Proposition
Payments Marketplace offers investors exposure to an unusual combination of high-conviction fintech pillars.
Payments
A large and established global market with resilient transaction growth.
Software
A proprietary technology platform rather than a services-led or consultancy business.
Marketplace Economics
Two-sided network potential connecting merchants and PSPs efficiently.
AI & Automation
Applied to merchant readiness, compliance scanning, and provider matching.
Data & Intelligence
A potentially valuable dataset connecting merchant characteristics with PSP acceptance behaviour.
Infrastructure
An API-ready platform capable of being embedded into third-party payment ecosystems.
Capital Efficiency
A model that does not require Payments Marketplace to become a payment processor, hold client funds, or fund merchant transactions.
Corporate Structure & Clean IP
Dedicated UK registered legal entity (Payments Marketplace Ltd) with all proprietary code, IP, and marketplace assets ring-fenced and unencumbered for clean investor participation.
SEIS & EIS Investment
Making early investment more attractive
Payments Marketplace Ltd intends to explore qualification for the UK's Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and, where appropriate, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).
These government-backed schemes are designed to encourage investment in qualifying early-stage UK companies by providing potentially significant tax reliefs to individual investors.
For qualifying SEIS investors, the scheme can provide 50% Income Tax relief on qualifying investments, subject to the investor and company meeting the relevant conditions. SEIS currently permits a qualifying company to raise up to £250,000 under the scheme.
For Payments Marketplace, this could provide an attractive structure for the first stage of external investment.
Subject to HMRC confirmation and the company's continuing eligibility, the intention would be to explore a structure incorporating:
Why SEIS/EIS Matters to Investors
The tax advantages can materially change the risk profile of an early-stage investment.
For example, a qualifying investor subscribing £50,000 for new SEIS shares could potentially receive £25,000 of Income Tax relief, subject to the investor's individual circumstances and the shares continuing to satisfy the relevant conditions.
The investment remains in a high-growth early-stage company, and capital is at risk. SEIS/EIS relief is intended to encourage investment in qualifying companies; it is not a guarantee of investment performance.
There may also be additional Capital Gains Tax advantages where the relevant SEIS/EIS conditions are satisfied.
Seeking HMRC Advance Assurance
Before formally marketing the investment round as SEIS/EIS qualifying, Payments Marketplace intends to seek HMRC Advance Assurance.
Advance Assurance allows HMRC to consider the proposed investment and indicate whether it considers the proposed share issue likely to satisfy the relevant venture-capital-scheme requirements.
This is important for both Payments Marketplace and prospective investors because it can provide greater clarity before investors subscribe.
However, Advance Assurance is not a guarantee of tax relief. Investors must satisfy their own individual conditions, and the company must continue to satisfy the relevant requirements throughout the applicable period.
Use of Investment Capital
Payments Marketplace's proposed use of investment capital is focused on the continued growth and development of the company's technology and trading business. Investment will be directed principally towards:
- PSP acquisition and commercial partnerships
- Merchant and ISO distribution
- Product development and API integration
- Platform infrastructure and security
- Sales and business development
- Operational and compliance capability
- Expansion of the PSP network
- Growth of the Payments Marketplace
The Next Phase
The core technology has been built. The next stage is commercialisation. Our focus is now on expanding the PSP network, converting early commercial interest into active provider relationships, generating recurring merchant deal flow and demonstrating the economics of the marketplace at scale.
We are not looking to build another payment processor. We are building the intelligence and qualification layer that helps the payment ecosystem work more efficiently.