Yaspa’s Sifted 250 ranking, announced on 2 October 2026, places the payments company seventh among the fastest-growing scale-ups across Europe, following its earlier recognition as the fourth fastest-growing startup in the UK and Ireland on the same leaderboard.
The Sifted 250 is an annual list compiled by FinTech Futures-covered publication Sifted, which is backed by the Financial Times. The methodology tracks compound annual revenue growth over a selected two-year accounting period of at least 26 weeks to identify Europe’s highest-performing startups and scale-ups. Yaspa’s position on the list is based on revenue growth over that rolling window, not a single year’s performance.
What Yaspa claims, and what the Sifted 250 actually measures
The company combines real-time Pay by Bank payments with what it calls Intelligent Payments customer insights, the latter powered by Open Banking technology. It describes its product as serving high-growth and regulated commercial sectors, though the list itself ranks on revenue growth alone, not product quality or market durability.
James Neville, chief executive officer and founder of Yaspa, said the placing was ‘an immense honour and a testament to the hard work of the entire Yaspa team,’ adding that it reflected ‘our exceptional growth trajectory and the critical impact our technology is having across the broader payments and business landscapes.’
The awards cited alongside the Sifted placing are worth noting. In 2026 so far, Yaspa has been named Best Payment Solution Provider at the European iGaming Awards and Payment Solution of the Year at the SBC Awards. In June, it won two categories at the EGR B2B Awards: AI Solutions Provider and Safer Gambling Supplier. CB Insights also included it in its Top 100 Fintechs list. The concentration of those awards in gambling and gaming is not incidental: it speaks directly to where Yaspa’s commercial traction appears strongest.
The $12m round, Discerning Capital, and Yaspa Sifted 250 momentum
The growth underpinning this Yaspa Sifted 250 placement has been supported by a $12m investment round closed last year, led by Discerning Capital. According to Yaspa, Discerning Capital is a US-based investment firm focused on the intersection of online wagering, sports, media and technology. The strategic fit between backer and investee is clear enough: Yaspa’s award trail runs heavily through the gambling sector, and its investor is a specialist in precisely that space.
David Williams, partner at Discerning Capital, has said that Yaspa’s account-to-account (A2A) product addresses gambling industry challenges related to chargebacks and player protections. That framing positions the product less as a generic payments layer and more as a solution to specific regulatory and operational pain points in a sector where those problems are acute.
The funding has translated into concrete expansion. Yaspa says it has grown to 70 employees in the past 18 months, according to its own US expansion announcement. It has opened a new office in Atlanta and a technology hub in Leeds, the latter in August 2025. Both moves suggest the company is building operational infrastructure rather than simply adding headcount in existing locations.
The Sifted 250 ranking does not, by itself, tell us whether Yaspa’s revenue growth is profitable, sustainable, or concentrated in one sector. A company can grow quickly while remaining deeply dependent on a narrow customer base. None of that makes the ranking meaningless, but it is worth holding alongside the fuller picture: a payments company whose biggest commercial wins, and whose lead investor, are both anchored in online gambling.
Yaspa is an Event Partner at Open Banking Expo UK and Europe 2026, taking place on 13–14 October at the Business Design Centre in London.
