Yaspa Ranked 7th Fastest-Growing European Scale-Up in Sifted 250 Leaderboard

Fintech scale-up Yaspa has secured the seventh position on the 2026 Sifted 250 leaderboard, marking it as one of the fastest-growing private companies in Europe. For fintech professionals, this ranking underscores the accelerating commercial viability of combining open banking with artificial intelligence to solve complex identity and payment challenges in highly regulated industries.

What was announced

Sifted, the publication backed by the Financial Times, released its 2026 Sifted 250 list on Thursday, October 1st. The index tracks the highest-performing startups and scale-ups across Europe based on compound annual revenue growth over a three-year period. Yaspa’s seventh-place finish across the continent follows its earlier recognition as the fourth fastest-growing startup in the UK and Ireland. This ranking serves as a validation of the company’s commercial expansion and the increasing market appetite for intelligent payment technology.

The company’s growth is anchored in its "Intelligent Payments" suite, which merges real-time Pay by Bank capabilities with AI-driven customer insights. This technology is primarily targeted at high-growth and regulated commercial sectors that require both rapid settlement and robust identity verification. By utilizing open banking, the platform provides a full suite of payment and account verification services designed to be frictionless and secure.

The ranking follows a year of significant expansion and industry recognition. In 2026, Yaspa was named Best Payment Solution Provider at the European iGaming Awards and Payment Solution of the Year at the SBC Awards. It also secured two EGR B2B Awards in June for AI Solutions Provider and Safer Gambling Supplier. These accolades coincide with a period of physical expansion, including the opening of a tech hub in Leeds in August 2025 and a new office in Atlanta, USA. This scaling was supported by a $12 million investment round closed last year, led by Discerning Capital.

"Being recognised as the seventh fastest-growing business in Europe by Sifted is an immense honour and a testament to the hard work of the entire Yaspa team. This achievement reflects our exceptional growth trajectory and the critical impact our technology is having across the broader payments and business landscapes. We are proud to be building alongside Europe’s most ambitious companies as we continue our mission to deliver intelligent, frictionless and secure payment solutions internationally."

James Neville, CEO and founder at Yaspa.

The companies involved

Yaspa is a London-based fintech founded in 2017 by a former Worldpay CTO. The company has positioned itself at the intersection of open banking and artificial intelligence, offering a suite of payment and account verification services. Regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Yaspa operates across the UK, Europe, and the United States, maintaining physical offices in London, Leeds, and Atlanta. Its core product, Pay by Bank, utilizes open banking technology to bypass traditional card networks, aiming to provide more secure and cost-effective transactions for merchants.

Discerning Capital, which led Yaspa’s recent $12 million funding round, is an investment firm focused on high-growth technology sectors. Yaspa’s rise within the Sifted 250 highlights its transition from a niche technology provider to a major player in the European fintech ecosystem. By integrating verified customer insights directly into the payment flow, the company addresses specific friction points in sectors like iGaming and financial services, where identity verification and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance are as critical as the transaction itself.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely tracked Yaspa’s development throughout 2026. In April, the publication reported on how Yaspa and Paysecure Partner to Offer True Payments Intelligence to the Payment Sector, a move designed to broaden the reach of its AI-driven insights. This followed the news that Yaspa Appoints Cameron Flood as New Head of Product in March, signaling a strengthening of its leadership team during this high-growth phase. Earlier in the year, the company demonstrated its commitment to ethical technology when Yaspa Becomes Founding Member of UNLV’s AI Research Hub to Advance Responsible AI Adoption in the Gambling Industry. This research-focused initiative highlights the company's focus on safer gambling and regulatory compliance.

What this means

Yaspa’s rapid ascent demonstrates that the "open banking 1.0" era—focused purely on moving money—is being superseded by "intelligent payments." The market is clearly rewarding providers that can wrap value-added services, such as AI-driven identity verification and risk assessment, around the core transaction. This puts significant pressure on traditional payment processors and legacy card networks that struggle to provide the same level of real-time data transparency. For the wider sector, the success of this model raises questions about how quickly competitors can integrate similar AI layers before the first-mover advantage in regulated industries becomes insurmountable.