Rapyd
Rapyd is a payments company that lets businesses take payments from customers and send money to sellers and suppliers in many countries through one integration. Merchants accept cards and hundreds of local payment methods, such as digital wallets, bank transfers and cash vouchers, from more than 190 countries. Rapyd began in 2016 as an e-wallet project and now calls its model fintech as a service.
Online shops, marketplaces, travel companies and software vendors use Rapyd when they sell or pay out in many markets and want one provider for all of them. Businesses can also build accounts, wallets and cards from Rapyd into their own apps, while Rapyd runs the payment rails and the licenses behind them. Arik Shtilman, a co-founder of Rapyd, leads the company as chief executive.
Payment acceptance online and in stores
Rapyd accepts payments in more than 150 currencies from customers in more than 190 countries and markets, with currency conversion built in. Next to cards, the local methods include digital wallets, bank transfers, stablecoins and cash vouchers, and Rapyd states authorization rates of up to 97 percent. Rapyd is a licensed acquirer for Visa and Mastercard in the UK, the EU, Latin America, Hong Kong, Israel and Singapore, and it also accepts American Express.
Online merchants connect through the payments API, a hosted checkout page, payment links or a virtual terminal. For sales in physical stores, Rapyd rents out card machines, and merchants who need a terminal only for a while can hire one short term. Since 24 June 2025, merchants in the UK and Ireland can take contactless payments with an iPhone through Tap to Pay in the Rapyd Pay app, without extra hardware.
Payouts with Disburse
Rapyd Disburse is the payout platform of Rapyd and sends money to more than 190 countries in more than 120 currencies, for business, consumer and person-to-person transfers. A payout can go to a bank account, through a real-time payment network, to a third-party wallet, as a stablecoin or to a debit or credit card. Card payouts run over Visa Direct and Mastercard Send at any hour, so a seller or a gig worker receives the money within minutes.
Marketplaces use Disburse to pay their sellers, and platforms use it to pay contractors and suppliers in other countries. For such cross-border business payments, Rapyd connects to local clearing systems in more than 190 countries and can send thousands of payouts at the same time.
Wallets, accounts and card issuing
Rapyd Wallet is an electronic wallet for receiving, storing and disbursing funds, built from a client wallet for the business and user wallets below it. A marketplace can open a user wallet for each seller, hold balances in several currencies and move money between wallets before it pays out to a bank account. Rapyd describes the product as a digital ledger and digital wallet with currency conversion, which businesses build into their own apps.
The card issuing API of Rapyd works across several countries and issues physical cards as well as virtual cards. Marketplaces can create accounts and issue cards to pay their sellers, and Rapyd also opens multi-currency business accounts and virtual accounts for businesses that receive money from abroad. A provider that runs such licensed functions for other companies works in the model of fintech as a service, the term Rapyd uses for itself.
E-money licenses in Iceland and the United Kingdom
Rapyd works as a group of regulated companies, and its company for the European Economic Area is Rapyd Europe hf. in Iceland. The Central Bank of Iceland supervises Rapyd Europe hf. as an electronic money institution under identification number 500683-0589. Since 29 January 2020, the Estonian financial supervisor has listed its cross-border services in the EU, from issuing e-money and acquiring card payments to payment initiation and account information.
In the United Kingdom, Rapyd Payments Limited is an electronic money institution authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority under number 900688. Outside Europe, the Monetary Authority of Singapore licenses Rapyd Holding Pte. Ltd. as a major payment institution, and Rapyd Payments Israel Ltd. holds a payment services license from the Israel Securities Authority. Rapyd HK Limited holds a money service operator license in Hong Kong, and Rapyd Financial Technology US Inc. is registered with FinCEN as a money services business in the United States.
Korta, Valitor and PayU GPO
Rapyd built its card acquiring business in Europe through two purchases of payment companies in Iceland. On 7 July 2020, Rapyd completed the purchase of Korta, an Icelandic card service provider that was a licensed European merchant acquirer and a principal member of Visa and Mastercard. Rapyd then agreed to buy Valitor from Arion Bank for $100 million, a payments company founded in 1983 with merchants in Iceland, the UK and Ireland. Arion Bank reported on 30 June 2022 that the Icelandic Competition Authority and the financial supervisor of the Central Bank of Iceland had approved the sale.
On 1 August 2023, Rapyd agreed to buy PayU GPO, the Global Payment Organisation of PayU, from the Dutch technology investor Prosus for $610 million. The deal left out the PayU businesses in India, Turkey and Southeast Asia, and PayU GPO operated in more than 30 countries at the time. In March 2025, Rapyd completed the purchase of PayU GPO in Latin America and Africa, which added card acquiring in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru as well as markets such as Nigeria and South Africa.
Upcoming payments events in Europe
What is Rapyd?
Rapyd is a payment service provider that sells payment acceptance and payouts to businesses on one platform, together with accounts and cards they can embed in their own products. Arik Shtilman co-founded Rapyd and leads it as chief executive, and Garðar Stefánsson is the chief executive of Rapyd Europe.
Is Rapyd regulated?
Rapyd provides its services through licensed group companies and, in countries without its own license, through regulated network partners. In the European Economic Area, Rapyd Europe hf. is an electronic money institution under the Central Bank of Iceland, and in the UK, Rapyd Payments Limited holds an e-money authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Contracts for businesses in Germany
During onboarding, Rapyd decides which group company serves a client, and a business located in Germany is onboarded to the European company. The contract then follows the terms for the European Economic Area, and the services fall under the e-money license of Rapyd Europe hf. in Iceland.
Stablecoin payments and payouts
Since 9 September 2025, Rapyd has sold Stablecoin Payment Solutions, with which businesses accept stablecoin payments and convert them into fiat money. Businesses can also send payouts in stablecoins and receive settlement in stablecoins, and Rapyd provides these services through regulated third-party providers.
Offices in Europe
Rapyd has offices in London, Amsterdam and Iceland, next to Tel Aviv, Dubai, San Francisco, Miami, Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2026, Rapyd was named to the Hurun UK Unicorns list of 80 UK-based private companies valued at $1 billion or more. FXC Intelligence put Rapyd on its Cross-Border Payments 100 for the seventh year in a row, and Sarel Tal of Rapyd accepted the recognition at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam.
Payment platforms
Cross-border payments and acquiring
Rapyd and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers cross-border payouts and e-money licenses in its Payments & Digital Money track. Finance Loop explains the model behind Rapyd in its overview of fintech as a service, in which a licensed provider runs accounts, payments and cards that other companies sell under their own brand.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.