Richard Carter is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lopay, a UK-based payment platform he launched in 2022. Holding a BA (Hons) in Economics and Management from the University of Leeds, Carter previously built Orderpay—a table-ordering solution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through hands-on experience with small business owners, he identified a persistent issue: lengthy delays and high fees in payment processing. This realization led him to create Lopay, which enables instant payouts and lower transaction rates, ultimately serving over 50,000 businesses and saving them millions in fees.

Since its inception, Lopay has expanded beyond hospitality and transport, aiming to empower small and mobile businesses with efficient, affordable payment systems. Carter is a vocal advocate for resilience, practical entrepreneurship, and strategic scaling—advising startups to begin with a niche base (e.g., taxi drivers in London) and build through referrals and a lean, customer-focused approach. Known for championing innovation in digital payments—like tap-to-pay and merchant rewards—he’s positioning Lopay as a challenger to big players such as Square and Zettle.

Let’s start with the big picture—what inspired you to launch Lopay, and what problem were you most determined to solve for small businesses?

I launched Lopay after realizing that payment processing fees were far too high and merchants were waiting too long to get their funds. This was severely affecting small businesses in the U.K., particularly the hard-hit hospitality sector post-COVID.

A merchant might allow card payments for purchases higher than $5 but pay 2% or more to the processing firm, so I decided to create Lopay to ensure small businesses would not be priced out on losing their hard-earned money by big processing fees.

Now with Lopay, merchants get to keep more of their hard-earned money.

You’ve described transaction fees as a “hidden horror” in fintech. Why do you think these costs have been overlooked for so long, and how do they really affect Main Street entrepreneurs?

I believe that these costs have been overlooked for so long purely because nobody believed there was a better option, all the main providers are priced similarly with little difference between them.

It was just perceived to be the norm that the companies on the market such as Chase, Square, and Zettle were providing the best deal possible, so vendors were operating under the belief they had no other choice.

That’s why I brought Lopay to America, to show that there is a way to run business more efficiently while saving money and improving the bottom line for hardworking business owners across the U.S.

While other firms are operating at over 2.6% plus 15 cents, we keep Lopay under 2% while also providing the option to offset these already low fees to zero (0%) by using our free Expense & Rewards Card.

With China tariffs and inflation back in the headlines, many small businesses are under intense pressure. Where does payment processing fit into that financial squeeze?

Payment processing shouldn’t feel like it’s involved in financially squeezing customers; we should be helping merchants thrive, not making their lives more difficult.

Lopay makes sure that our customers understand they have joined a company who truly wants the best for them.

We ensure there are no contracts or hidden fees, and there are zero set up costs for business owners to get onboard.

There are also no monthly fees, because at a time where business owners are feeling a pinch between China tariffs and inflation, we want to be a pillar helping them continue to operate their business at a profit, not at a loss.

Lopay’s fees start as low as 0.79%, compared to the 2-3% many providers charge. How are you able to offer such competitive rates without compromising service or reliability?

Our fees in the U.K. begin as low as 0.79% but with loyalty programs, can be further reduced to 0%

In the U.S., our fees begin at 1.99% plus 10 cents which is the lowest available on the U.S. market for a payment processing firm.

We can do this as we are very operationally efficient and leverage our partnership with Stripe who processes over $1.4 trillion a year in payments.

At Lopay, we pride ourselves on keeping quality while cutting costs for our customers, ensuring that we are available when they need us both online and by phone.

We believe that we charge what is required to provide a top service to customers across the U.S., and while we are less expensive than others in payment processing, we are still reliable, sitting on top of Stripe’s world-class payment rails.

We also offer a free Expense & Rewards Card that provides our customers with the ability to offset all cards fees. For the first time, we provide the opportunity for net free payment processing, saving merchants thousands of dollars a year in fees.

In what ways does Lopay give small businesses more control over their cash flow, especially compared to traditional payment processors?

Lopay offers customers the option to decide when they receive their money, with some of our features allowing for instant payout to their banks 24/7.

All Lopay payments are instantly available on our free Expense & Rewards Card. This card can be linked to Intuit QuickBooks and Xero to support seamless expense management.

You’ve seen strong traction in the U.K. and are now expanding rapidly in the U.S. What differences do you see in how these two markets support small business?

The U.S. and U.K. support small business innovation in distinct ways. The U.S. takes a more expansive, federal-driven approach with major programs like SBIR/STTR, generous R&D tax credits, and a robust VC and private investment ecosystem. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and mandated federal procurement quotas also drive innovation through government contracts. The U.S. fosters a risk-tolerant entrepreneurial culture supported by strong IP protections, a deep pool of venture funding, and an ecosystem where failure is seen as part of growth.

In contrast, the U.K. emphasizes grants and tax-incentivized private investment through schemes like Innovate UK, SEIS, and EIS. While VC funding is growing, it’s more limited, and traditional bank lending still plays a larger role. Regulatory structures are streamlined for SMEs, and the legal environment is less litigious, which can lower startup costs. Cultural caution around risk is slowly shifting, especially in sectors like fintech and biotech, but the absence of a procurement mandate and the impact of Brexit have somewhat constrained broader access to markets and funding.

The fact that processing card payments are twice the cost in the U.S. vs. the U.K. means that our offset innovation is being incredibly well received! We offer the ability to make payment processing net free with use of our free Expense & Rewards Card. Adding 3% to your net profit as a small business may mean you are adding 20-40% to the bottom line. I don’t know of another lever you can pull so easily to affect how much you earn as a small business owner.

The U.S. has seen an explosion in independent businesses—from Etsy sellers to food trucks to fitness instructors. How is Lopay uniquely suited for this new wave of entrepreneurs?

Lopay allows anyone to simply use their cell phone and turn it into a way of taking payments, no matter the business.

In 2025, a majority of people leave their home with just their phone and their house keys, so it was important to me that Lopay made sure to match this by allowing for phones to become central to our payment systems.

This new wave of entrepreneurs now doesn’t have to worry about people not having cash or cards to pay for their services.

For other businesses looking to scale up, we can support them with POS systems and card readers and terminals, but by using our tap to pay feature and allowing cell phones to become a card reader, we truly support the new wave of entrepreneurs.

You recently won ‘Best Fintech Presenter’ at VSW 2025. What was the biggest message you wanted to deliver to that audience?

American businesses are being ripped off. Lopay now gives merchants access to the lowest cost card processing solution in the world.

With platforms like Square and Stripe dominating headlines, how does Lopay differentiate itself—not just in price, but in mission and technology?

Firstly, Stripe is our partner, and we use their rails to provide our core payment processing.

Our missions are quite similar. Stripe is to increase the GDP of the internet, ours is the increase the GDP of small and micro businesses.

Our mission is to help small businesses keep more of what they earn and to access their funds instantly.

Beyond cost saving, we want to help small businesses grow and retain more customers. We do this by offering a world class card linked loyalty solution, dynamic offers and rewards, and cash advances up to $2 million.

How does Lopay’s instant payout feature work, and why is that important for small business owners today?

The instant payout feature is exactly that, once your customer has paid the merchant then the funds will go directly to the bank account linked to their Lopay account.

At no additional charge, funds are always instantly available to our free Expense & Rewards Card.

We want to mitigate cash flow issues for our customers, so they can purchase stock or pay their bills.

You’ve talked about putting the SMB first—not the payment processor. What does that look like in practice at Lopay, and how do you keep that philosophy central as the company scales?

As outlined, our mission is to increase the GDP of small businesses.

We do this by:

• allowing merchants to keep more of the money they make by being the lowest cost provider in the market
• providing a free Expense & Rewards Card to help manage spending
• providing links to QuickBooks and Xero to help manage costs

All our product decisions are centered around putting the customer first. The fact that over 30% of our merchants were acquired by our existing happy customers suggests we are on the right track.

Finally, what’s next for Lopay in the U.S. market? Are there new features, partnerships, or sectors you’re especially excited about?

We are really going to disrupt the market. Net free payment processing with instant liquidity is quite difficult to beat!

Card linked loyalty, appointments, and merchant cash advances are all proving to be a big hit. We are excited about extending our Expense & Rewards Card to allow business owners to issue both physical and virtual cards to their team members later this year.

We are committed to adding further features and benefits that may result in our merchants being paid to Lopay.

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