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Founded in 2017, yetipay is a London-based payments company. They provide fast, low-cost terminals and processing for the hospitality, retail, and service sectors. The yetipay platform simplifies payments for businesses. yetipay offers reliable tools that make paying quick and simple for its customers while also saving businesses time and money.
Fast growth is intoxicating, but also expensive. For fintechs like yetipay, customer acquisition costs hit upfront, while revenues return months later.
yetipay’s model is simple but capital-intensive: field sales agents earn commissions on day one, with payback coming 6-12 months later through device rentals and payment processing. It’s a formula that took the company from £400K to £4.5M ARR in just 15 months.
As CEO and founder Oliver Pugh put it:
"The hardest part wasn’t proving demand. It was a funding demand. Every new sale felt like a double-edged sword: growth on the horizon but cash leaving today."
Already in talks with angel investors, yetipay looked for a complementary funding source – debt that fueled growth without dilution.
yetipay faced a set of challenges:
- Financing gap: Commissions were paid upfront, while revenues returned only after 6-12 months.
- Dilution risk: Relying solely on equity means additional dilution and less founder control.
- Already in talks with angels: they were raising from a broad base of UK angels, but building momentum without a credible lead was difficult.
- Venture debt mismatch: Traditional lenders demanded blanket IP security, moved too slowly, and signalled poorly to angels.
What yetipay needed
yetipay’s ask was clear:
- Non-dilutive capital to fund CAC
- Speed & simplicity to keep angel round momentum high
- Flexible facility that scales with growth and flexes with plans
- A real funding partner – human, pragmatic, startup- and tech-savvy
In short, yetipay didn’t just need capital – it needed the right kind at the right moment: funding that matched its sales cycle, protected the cap table, and kept growth momentum. With re:cap launching its new financing infrastructure in the UK, the timing was ideal.
The solution was a £1.75M flexible credit line from re:cap, structured with light-touch security: only a pledge on receivables, no personal guarantees like banks, and no equity kickers like venture debt.
As Oliver explained, other lenders demanded blanket claims over IP and took months to reach a decision, a potential dealbreaker that would have stalled their angel round. re:cap’s speed and tailored terms kept momentum intact and confidence high.
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Why re:cap won
- People & pace: a direct, human-led sales process with fast decisions and clean communication.
- Fit for purpose: facility tied to CAC payback, not asset seizure.
- Signalling power: re:cap’s due diligence boosted angel confidence and anchored the equity raise.
- Flexible credit line: terms that adapt as yetipay evolves.
"Raising from re:cap brought the ‘big penguin’ that knocks all the others over – momentum for the angel round, without compromising our cap table."
How yetipay uses re:cap
- Fund CAC without dilution
- Use the credit line to pay commissions upfront.
- Repay debt from the revenue those customers generate over the following months.
"It’s literally turning our CAC into an asset. We can pay commissions today and know it comes back within months."
- Enable the equity round
- re:cap’s due diligence signaled quality to angel investors.
- It turned angel interest into commitments and anchored the round with £750K.
- Accelerate commercial bets
- Opened a telesales hub in Blackpool.
- Expanded field sales and tested PPC under strict CAC/LTV guardrails.
- Strengthen employer brand
- PR around the funding round helped raise visibility compared to larger rivals like Dojo.
- The announcement helped attract hires and boosted team morale.
- Operate with flexibility
- Light-touch security fits angel expectations.
- Adjustable funding terms let yetipay stay flexible as needed.
"What mattered most was not being locked in. re:cap gave us the breathing room to grow without a straitjacket."
Conclusion
For Oliver, the journey with re:cap was about more than securing £1.75M in non-dilutive capital. It was about building on momentum without giving up control, while keeping the company’s future options wide open. As he puts it:
"You’ve got to raise debt when you still have cash, not when you’re desperate. That way, you get better terms, more options, and partners who actually want to work with you."
By aligning debt directly to its CAC cycle, yetipay has strengthened its ability to scale faster, keep the cap table clean, and preserve strategic flexibility.
With its diversified capital structure, the company now has the confidence and growth capital to double down on its commercial bets – without sacrificing ownership or speed.
