Payments firm Tap & Go secures minority investment from Cashflows
This article covers Tap & Go, a fintech startup, and Cashflows' investment in a growth funding round that deepens their commercial partnership and will help Tap & Go broaden its product set beyond card terminals into ecommerce, virtual payments and multi-site solutions. The funding aims to support Tap & Go's product development and expansion into new verticals while enabling merchants to access integrated card acquiring, ecommerce and multi-site reconciliation services.
Cashflows has invested in Tap & Go in a growth funding round designed to deepen a commercial partnership between the two payments businesses and help Tap & Go broaden its product set beyond card terminals into ecommerce, virtual payments and multi-site solutions. The deal matters because it brings together two female-led challenger companies in a sector dominated by a small number of large incumbents, and signals a strategic move by Cashflows to expand via targeted minority investments.
Why it matters
Payments remain an area where integration and trust matter as much as price. For merchants, a single supplier that can combine card acquiring, ecommerce and multi-site reconciliation reduces operational friction. For the market, this kind of tie-up—between an acquirer providing infrastructure and a merchant-facing reseller—illustrates how challenger businesses are building deeper, product-led relationships to compete with incumbent banks and large processors.
The move also has symbolic weight: both businesses are led by women, and the transaction highlights the growing profile of founder-led fintech teams pursuing incremental, partnership-led growth rather than rapid, capital-intensive expansion. The announcement highlights continued momentum among UK fintech startups in finding pragmatic, co-operative routes to scale.
Inside the product
Tap & Go specialises in card payment technologies and merchant services. Since the partnership began in 2025, Cashflows has provided the infrastructure and transaction-settlement services for the card machines Tap & Go deploys. The investment is intended to fund product expansion into ecommerce gateways, virtual payments and multi-site solutions that help businesses with multiple locations reconcile sales and settlements more easily.
Tap & Go plans to deploy the funding across product development, hiring and marketing, and to push into new verticals including universities, stadiums, dentistry, hotels, builders’ merchants and the motor sector. Cashflows’ role as an acquirer means Tap & Go can rely on an established settlement and processing stack while focusing on merchant relationships and vertical-specific features.
Who are the investors?
Lead investor: Cashflows, the payments infrastructure and acquiring business that has been a commercial partner to Tap & Go since 2025. No other external investors were disclosed in the announcement.
The companies say the investment is part commercial deepening and part strategic growth capital: Cashflows supplies settlement and processing for Tap & Go’s deployed card machines, and the financial stake will enable closer product integration and exploration of further strategic investments by Cashflows.
In the announcement, Hannah Fitzsimons, CEO at Cashflows, said:
While the relationship may have started as a commercial partnership, this is not simply a financial investment - we believe in what Tap & Go are building and the energy from the team is palpable. This is a real opportunity to combine their drive and customer focus with our experience and expertise to accelerate the next stage of growth for Tap & Go.
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Founder perspective
Tap & Go’s leadership frames the deal as a way to build a recognisable brand and support merchants as they grow across channels and sites. The company’s founder and managing director, Anna McDonald, emphasised the cultural fit between the two businesses and the practical benefits for customers.
In the announcement, Anna McDonald, Managing Director at Tap & Go, said:
We are building a brand and proposition that means customers come to Tap & Go because they know we can support them wherever their growth takes them. We are very proud to be a challenger in our own space and working with Cashflows, itself a challenger acquirer, bringing a shared level of tenacity, ambition and drive. There’s something particularly powerful about two female-led businesses coming together with that mindset, as together, we can be ambitious about what we build and deliver for our customers.
Nichola Eagle, Operations Director at Tap & Go, is also named as part of the senior team collaborating with Cashflows to scale operations and service delivery.
The bigger picture
This is a modest example of a growing pattern in UK fintech where infrastructure providers and merchant-facing businesses enter financial and operational partnerships to accelerate go-to-market efforts. For incumbents, the consolidation of features under fewer vendors increases competitive pressure; for merchants, it promises simpler vendor management but raises questions about vendor lock-in and data portability.
As challengers pursue pragmatic partnerships rather than headline-grabbing fundraising rounds, expect to see more targeted investments that blend commercial arrangements with equity stakes. That approach could become an increasingly common route for fintech companies in the UK and Europe to expand product sets while controlling burn and leveraging specialist expertise.
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