Cashflows invests in Blackpool's Tap & Go as two female-led payments firms combine

London payments company Cashflows has taken an undisclosed equity stake in Blackpool-based Tap & Go, converting a two-year commercial partnership into a direct investment that will fund the merchant-services challenger's expansion into e-commerce, virtual payments and multi-site solutions.

Cashflows, a London-headquartered acquirer founded in 2010, has invested in Tap & Go, a Blackpool startup specialising in card payment machines and merchant services. The deal binds together two female-led payments businesses and deepens a relationship that began in 2025, when Cashflows started providing the settlement infrastructure behind Tap & Go's card terminals.

Terms were not disclosed. Tap & Go said it would deploy the capital toward growth, broadening its product range across a widening set of customer verticals while the two firms continue to develop their commercial partnership.

Tap & Go was founded in 2022 by Anna McDonald and Nichola Eagle within the International Connections Group (ICG) and has recently spun out as a standalone business. It supplies card payment machines and business cash advances aimed at companies of all sizes.

The investment gives the Blackpool company the balance sheet to move beyond in-person card acceptance. Tap & Go plans to expand into e-commerce, virtual payments and multi-site solutions, and to push into new verticals including universities, stadiums, dentistry, hotels, builders' merchants and the motor sector.

Part of the capital will go toward people, brand building and market reputation, as Tap & Go looks to win customers organically rather than through paid acquisition. The company positions itself as a challenger acquirer competing against larger incumbents in UK merchant services.

Cashflows, led by chief executive Hannah Fitzsimons, operates its own acquiring platform and gateway, processing card and digital payments for growing businesses and financial institutions across Europe. Backing a downstream distribution partner secures transaction volume for that platform while giving Cashflows exposure to Tap & Go's merchant book.

"There's something particularly powerful about two female-led businesses coming together," said Anna McDonald, managing director of Tap & Go, describing Cashflows as "itself a challenger acquirer" with a shared appetite for growth.

The structure is a strategic minority investment rather than a takeover, with Fitzsimons joining forces with McDonald and Eagle while both brands continue to operate. For the cap table, it converts an infrastructure supplier into a shareholder, aligning Cashflows' processing economics with Tap & Go's expansion and giving the Blackpool firm a committed backer as it scales beyond its North West base.

The deal is a rare example of one UK fintech taking equity in another at the smaller end of the market, where consolidation has typically been driven by private equity or overseas acquirers rather than by domestic payments peers.

*Original source: EU-Startups