Making Group Gift Collections Easier: How Ryft Scaled Payment Operations
Discover how GiftRound replaced Mangopay and rebuilt its payments infrastructure to scale group gift collections with Ryft.
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Stuck with a legacy provider and a platform that needed to change
GiftRound had been with Mangopay since launch. At the time, few providers could handle escrow payments in a digital environment, making it the only viable option. As the relationship matured with Mangopay, things became increasingly difficult. Fees rose, flexibility reduced, and following Brexit, Mangopay withdrew from the UK market entirely. GiftRound was left as one of their few remaining UK customers, with limited options and a provider that no longer served their needs.
The regulatory requirements created a deeply frustrating experience for users. KYC documentation uploads failed repeatedly. Customers were asked to retake photos of their ID multiple times. GiftRound found themselves stuck in the middle, fielding complaints they could not resolve. The business had outgrown its infrastructure. A full platform rebuild was unavoidable. The question was whether the right Mangopay alternative existed to support what came next.
Regulation was increasingly clunky for our customers. Upload of KYC documentation, verification of identities was a constant friction. We couldn't scale with these constraints, and it was starting to hold the business back.
The right partner for the platform rebuild
GiftRound completely restructured its platform from the ground up. The rebuild demanded a payments partner that could support UK and Ireland operations with a compliance-first approach, handle escrow and sub-account functionality for white-label collections, and remove the KYC friction that had plagued the previous setup. GiftRound wanted to keep group gifting simple and fair. They choose not to offer cash-out options so their group collections are genuinely free from start to finish. Ryft met each of those requirements directly, and the partnership was built from there.
Ryft offered a unified platform that could hold money securely in escrow and process payments. The pricing was transparent and competitive, which was essential for GiftRound to maintain its fee-free model for users. The implementation was equally straightforward. Documentation was clear, the sandbox environment worked without issues, and the development team had no problems during onboarding.
Beyond the technical fit, the relationship itself was a deciding factor. GiftRound needed a partner they could be completely open with, one that would give honest, direct answers on legislation and keep them on the right side of payment regulations.
It's important for me to have a really transparent, open relationship. Ryft are the payments experts, not us. We want to ask a question and get an honest answer back so that we're always on the right side of legislation. That's what Ryft has given us.
A clean migration, a business ready to grow with a leading Mangopay alternative
Since partnering with Ryft, GiftRound has been able to focus on growth rather than payment operations.
The transparent fee structure directly enables GiftRound's core promise to its users, that every pound contributed goes to the recipient's gift. Ryft's pricing makes that model commercially viable and sustainable at scale.
The removal of clunky KYC requirements has eliminated a significant source of customer friction. Users can now complete a collection faster, cleaner, and aligned with a cashless, hybrid working world.
The partnership has also supported GiftRound's expansion into white-label services. The next stage for the business is launching in the US and Canada, with confidence that they have a partner ready to support this exciting time for the business.
Ryft's transparent fees are what make our free service possible. Every pound goes to the recipient, and that only works with the right payments partner
Key Benefits
- Clean migration: A full platform rebuild completed without technical issues, supported by clear documentation and a responsive implementation team.
- Transparent pricing: Competitive fees that directly enable GiftRound to offer a completely free service to its own customers.
- Removed customer friction: Eliminating complex KYC requirements significantly improved the user experience and reduced drop off.
- Built for what comes next: Sub-account functionality, white label support, and a PayFac-as-a-Service model that meant GiftRound could scale without rebuilding its payments infrastructure again. With Ryft already in place for UK and European operations and a clear path to expansion into the US and Canada, the partnership was built to grow with the business, not just serve where it was.
We'd rebuilt our entire platform, we knew exactly what we needed, and Ryft just ticked every box. A fresh approach, a genuinely UK-focused partner, transparent on fees, transparent on everything. The relationship has been open and honest from day one, and that matters when payments aren't your specialism. We're not just set up for where we are now, we're set up for where we're going.
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