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We make payments simple

Target is a London-based payment platform for businesses that sell online: acquiring, multi-currency processing, fraud monitoring and a merchant dashboard under one contract. 150+ active clients, 15+ partner banks, 88% average conversion — and a team that still picks up the phone at three in the morning.

Story

Target started in 2019 as a small team of payments engineers in London who were tired of stitching four providers together to take one card payment. The first version of the gateway went live with a single acquiring bank and ten merchants who trusted us with their checkout. By the end of that year we were processing in three currencies and had learnt the lesson the business still runs on: the checkout is not the product. The settlement, the report and the person who answers the phone are.

In 2022 we rebranded as Target. The new name came with a new dashboard, 3-D Secure 2.2 on every transaction and a promise we measure every release against: each element of the platform — pricing, routing, reports, contracts — has to be transparent, and simple enough to explain in one sentence.

Today Target is headquartered at 1 Poultry in the City of London, with engineering and the 24/7 support desk in Riga and risk and partner relations in Limassol. We are an authorised Electronic Money Institution and connect to Visa and Mastercard through 15+ principal-member partner banks, which is what lets us route each transaction to the acquirer most likely to approve it.

Founded
2019, London
Rebranded
2022, as Target
Headquarters
1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJ, United Kingdom
Offices
Riga (engineering, support) · Limassol (risk, partnerships)
Licence
Electronic Money Institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 900847
Card schemes
Visa and Mastercard through 15+ principal-member partner banks and PSPs
Team
48 people in three countries — 26 of them engineers
Numbers
150+
Active clients on the platform

These are the numbers we show our board, not the best case. Averages across every active merchant over the last twelve months, updated each quarter.

15+
Connected partner banks and PSPs
88%
Average payment conversion
150+
Currencies for processing, settlement in 25
Our values See services

Three words we check every release against

Transparency

One contract, one fee table, one dashboard. You see interchange, scheme fee and our margin on every transaction, and you get an answer to every question — including the awkward ones — within one business day.

Simplicity

Every feature has to be explainable in a sentence. If a setting needs a manual, we redesign the setting. The result is a checkout that integrates in hours and a dashboard your finance team uses without training.

Reliability

Redundant acquiring routes for every currency, settlement on the day we promised and a support desk staffed by people at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. We are the part of your stack you never have to think about.

See services
Timeline

From one acquiring bank to fifteen

Six milestones that changed what the platform is. Everything in between was smaller releases, most of them shipped on a Tuesday.

2019

Founded in London

Four engineers, one acquiring bank and ten merchants. The first version of the gateway processes GBP, EUR and USD, settles once a week and already ships with the reporting that later became the merchant dashboard.

2020

Multi-currency and the Riga office

Five partner banks connected, settlement in 12 currencies and a hosted payment page that goes live in an afternoon. Engineering moves into its own office on Elizabetes iela in Riga.

2021

Fraud engine and PCI DSS Level 1

The rules-based fraud engine ships together with chargeback alerts. First PCI DSS Level 1 certification. The Limassol office opens to run risk and partner relations closer to our Mediterranean and Middle-East merchants.

2022

Rebranded as Target

New name, new dashboard, 3-D Secure 2.2 on every card transaction. 100 active merchants, the first Enterprise contracts on interchange++ pricing and a personal manager for every Business account.

2024

150 currencies and mass payouts

Processing in 150+ currencies with settlement in 25. Payouts to cards, IBAN and e-wallets launch, and machine-learning scoring joins the fraud rules — chargeback ratio across the portfolio drops below 0.4%.

2026

Today

150+ active clients, 15+ partner banks, 88% average conversion. The SOC 2 Type II observation period is under way, and the next thing we simplify is already in the sandbox.

Team Join the team

The people you will actually talk to

48 people in London, Riga and Limassol. Half of us write code; the other half ran risk, compliance or support desks at banks and PSPs before joining. These are the eight you are most likely to meet in your first month.

James Whitcombe

Chief Executive Officer

Mārtiņš Ozoliņš

Chief Technology Officer

Eleni Constantinou

Head of Risk

Charlotte Ashworth

Head of Compliance, MLRO

Andreas Georgiou

Head of Partnerships

Līga Bērziņa

Head of Support

Kristaps Kalniņš

Lead Backend Engineer

Oliver Hartley

Product Designer

Join the team
Compliance

Licensed. Certified. Audited.

Payments is a regulated business and we run it as one. Below is what we hold, what we are audited against and where it can be checked. Every certificate and report is available to merchants on request, most of them under NDA.

PCI DSS Level 1
Assessed every year by a Qualified Security Assessor, with quarterly ASV vulnerability scans. The current Attestation of Compliance is dated March 2026.
FCA-authorised EMI
Target Financial Services Ltd is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 to issue electronic money and provide payment services. Firm Reference Number 900847.
GDPR and UK GDPR
Registered data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office (ZB 412873). Data is processed in UK and EU data centres only; processing agreements and a record of sub-processors are part of every merchant contract. See the Privacy policy.
AML/CTF programme
Risk-based KYC/KYB at onboarding, ongoing transaction monitoring, sanctions and PEP screening against UK, EU, UN and OFAC lists, and a Money Laundering Reporting Officer who reports to the National Crime Agency. Read the Anti Money Laundering Policy.
SOC 2 Type II
In progress. The observation period started in January 2026 and the report is expected in the fourth quarter. A SOC 2 Type I report is available under NDA today.
3-D Secure 2.2
EMV 3-D Secure 2.2 on every card transaction, with the frictionless flow for low-risk payments and SCA exemptions (transaction risk analysis, low value) applied automatically where the issuer allows them.
01

Safeguarded funds

Client money is held in segregated safeguarding accounts at UK credit institutions, separate from Target's own funds, as the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 require. It cannot be used to run the business and is reconciled daily.

02

Independent audits

Annual PCI DSS assessment by a QSA, quarterly ASV scans and an external penetration test every year. Financial statements are audited annually and filed with Companies House.

03

Data protection

Card data is tokenised at the checkout and never touches your servers. Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest, access is role-based and logged, and backups stay inside the UK and the EU.

Offices

Three offices, one team. Sales and contracts sit in London, engineering and the 24/7 support desk in Riga, risk and partner relations in Limassol — and every merchant has one manager who knows all three. Write to info@target.co.uk or use the contact form and we route it ourselves.

LON

London — Headquarters

1 PoultryLondon EC2R 8EJUnited Kingdom

Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00 GMT
+44 20 3808 9720

SalesComplianceFinance
Contact this office
RIX

Riga — Engineering

Elizabetes iela 45/47Rīga LV-1010Latvia

Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00 EET
Support desk: 24/7, every day

EngineeringSupport
Contact this office
LIM

Limassol — Risk

Spyrou Kyprianou 61Limassol 4003Cyprus

Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00 EET
Partner meetings by appointment

RiskPartnerships
Become a partner
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