Edinburgh based BR-DGE raises £10m from Bettor Capital and Greyfriars
This article covers BR-DGE, an Edinburgh fintech startup, which has raised £10m in a growth funding round to accelerate international expansion and deepen its payments orchestration product. The funding will be used to develop platform capabilities and go-to-market activity to support enterprise merchants in regulated sectors such as gaming and online retail.
BR-DGE, an Edinburgh fintech startup, has raised £10m in a growth funding round to accelerate international expansion and deepen its payments orchestration product. The capital will be used to develop platform capabilities, support go-to-market activity and push into new markets and products as the company moves beyond gaming into adjacent enterprise sectors. The business says platform volumes are up 15x in under two years and that transactions will exceed 100 million per month by year-end.
Why it matters
Payments are increasingly strategic for large merchants, especially in regulated and fast-moving sectors such as gaming and online retail. BR-DGE’s growth highlights how orchestration layers that manage routing, resilience and data are becoming core infrastructure for firms that cannot tolerate payment failures. The company already counts The Hut Group and Betfred among recent customers, demonstrating demand across both e-commerce and betting operations where approval rates, compliance and payout reliability directly affect revenue and customer experience.
Inside the product
BR-DGE sells an orchestration platform that combines routing, tokenisation, data insight and intelligent controls to optimise transaction outcomes. The stack is designed to improve approval rates, simplify provider management and provide visibility into payment flows across multiple markets and regulatory regimes. The firm also emphasises payout and withdrawal performance for operators — a known pain point in gaming where rapid cash movements and compliance checks collide.
Product features described by the company include dynamic routing to boost approvals, data-driven decisioning to tune flows and infrastructure designed for resilience under high volume. Those capabilities matter to enterprise merchants juggling multiple acquirers, payment providers and regional regulations.
Who are the investors?
The £10m growth round brings a new growth investor alongside continued backing from BR-DGE’s existing supporters. Bettor Capital, a US-based specialist investor focused on the gaming industry, joined the round; Greyfriars continues to act as long-term investment advisor to the company. The funding is earmarked for platform development, go-to-market expansion and geographic growth, with significant market and product launches planned in the second half of the year.
In the announcement, Jake Kleiner, Partner at Bettor Capital, said:
We invest in core infrastructure that powers the gaming industry, and BR-DGE is a clear example of that strategy. BR-DGE gives operators a smarter way to manage payments performance, resilience and data-driven decisions across a highly complex provider and regulatory landscape. Its growing positioning in gaming, combined with significant opportunity in adjacent verticals, made this a highly attractive investment opportunity, and we’re excited to partner with the BR-DGE team to power their next stage of growth and global expansion.
In the announcement, Pauline Bradley, CEO at Greyfriars, said:
We have supported BR-DGE throughout its journey to becoming a category-leading payments technology company, and we are committed to continuing that support. The company has strengthened its platform, bolstered its management team and broadened its customer base and market position. This new funding gives it the platform to build on that momentum and accelerate its ambition to become a global leader in payment intelligence and optimisation.
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Founder perspective
The round coincides with a senior appointment: Perry Blacher has been named chairman. BR-DGE’s leadership frames the funding as a response to rising merchant expectations around payment performance and the need for merchant-facing intelligence layers.
In the announcement, Thomas Gillan, CEO at BR-DGE, said:
This investment gives us additional backing at a pivotal stage of international expansion. Payments have become a much bigger strategic priority for enterprise merchants, particularly in complex, regulated sectors where resilience, competitive advantage, customer experience and compliance are critical to success. The next generation of payment infrastructure is not about moving money; it's about optimising every transaction. We are building the intelligence and optimisation layer that enables merchants to maximise the performance of every payment. This new funding will enable us to further develop our platform, power our growth plan and help more merchants solve the payment infrastructure problems that matter most in large-scale businesses.
In the announcement, Perry Blacher, Chairman at BR-DGE, said:
BR-DGE is operating in one of the most important areas of enterprise payments. Merchants need infrastructure that helps them make better decisions, use data more effectively and respond quickly as markets, providers and customer expectations change. BR-DGE has the technology, sector knowledge and customer focus to solve those problems at scale, and is well positioned to help define the next generation of enterprise payments.
The bigger picture
BR-DGE’s raise is part of a broader wave of investment into payment-infrastructure businesses that offer orchestration and observability for complex merchant stacks. As online commerce and regulated verticals such as gaming scale, merchants and operators are prioritising resiliency, data and integrated routing over single-provider dependency. The deal also reflects renewed interest from fintech investors in firms that sit between merchants and payment providers, offering clear commercial levers through improved approval rates and reduced failures.
Founded in Edinburgh in 2018, BR-DGE’s expansion ambitions underline the UK’s ongoing role as a hub for payments innovation and the wider European appetite for technology that simplifies cross-border, regulated payments.
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