The proposition was simple enough: young people hadn't stopped caring about charity, they'd just stopped carrying cash. So Tom Montague and Alex Coleridge, schoolmates turned co-founders, put the collection tin on the phone.
Their London-based startup, Givestar, announced a £9 million Series A round led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from Love Ventures. BusinessCloud pegged it as the largest fundraising technology round completed by a UK platform, though the company didn't disclose valuation details. The capital will bankroll a more aggressive push into the U.S. market, where Givestar has already inked partnerships with events including Bay to Breakers and the Las Vegas Marathon.
Givestar's pitch centers on mobile-first tools that feel native to how people actually donate now. The platform's Tap To Donate feature transforms smartphones into contactless payment terminals, letting fundraisers collect contributions by tapping a supporter's card or phone against their device. Another tool, Split Donate, allows users to divide a single gift among as many as four charities. The approach has resonated: the company says it serves nearly 800,000 user accounts and has processed over $70 million in donations across more than 4,000 charities.
Platform volume grew 130% year-over-year in early 2026, according to a LinkedIn post by Givestar in June 2026, though exact figures weren't disclosed. The business appears to be gaining momentum at a clip that suggests either genuine product-market fit or particularly effective event partnerships.
From TapSimple to transatlantic ambitions
Montague and Coleridge, both born in 1991, founded the company in April 2018 as TapTap Giving Ltd. It traded initially as TapSimple before rebranding to Givestar in 2021. The startup employs somewhere between 11 and 50 people, according to LinkedIn data as of September 2026, a range that suggests the company is still in that awkward phase between scrappy and scaled.
The platform got a meaningful credibility boost when endurance runner Russ Cook—who goes by "Hardest Geezer"—used Givestar to raise over £1 million during his 2024 Africa run. It marked the first seven-figure individual fundraiser on the platform, the kind of milestone that tends to get noticed by both donors and institutional backers.
U.S. expansion has become a clear priority. Givestar was announced as Official U.S. Fundraising Partner with Spartan and Tough Mudder in 2026, as reported by BusinessCloud, and now works with more than 70 American events. The company announced a multi-year partnership with Motiv Sports beginning in 2027, according to endurance.biz. U.S. donations flow through the PayPal Giving Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, while the UK business operates under Financial Conduct Authority registration as a Small Payment Institution.
The company also secured B Corp certification in August 2024 with a score of 103.2, a credential that carries weight with the kind of mission-driven donors and partners Givestar courts.
Taking aim at "stagnant" incumbents
Hugo Lough, an investor at Mercia Ventures, put it diplomatically: "Fundraising behaviour has changed significantly over the past decade, but much of the technology supporting charities has struggled to keep pace."
Love Ventures was less diplomatic. The firm has publicly positioned Givestar as an alternative to "dominant players like JustGiving and GoFundMe [that] have become increasingly stagnant and transactional." Whether that critique is fair or venture-capital marketing, it points to a real tension in the fundraising tech landscape. A document from Benefact Group listed the UK market as crowded with options: JustGiving, Enthuse, CAF Donate, Raisely, GivenGain, GoFundMe, Givey, Givestar and Crowdfunder all competing for donor attention.
Givestar previously raised £2.1 million from Love Ventures, creator and investor Julius Dein, and Benefact Group, which backed the company before its April 2023 Seedrs crowdfunding campaign. That earlier campaign listed a pre-money valuation of £8.5 million, suggesting the Series A represents meaningful growth, though perhaps not the explosive kind that venture investors dream about.
Back in the UK, Givestar continues partnerships with event organizers including RunThrough, Ultra Events and Charity Challenge. The strategy seems to be working: capture fundraisers at the point of highest emotional engagement, when someone has just finished a marathon or climbed a mountain for a cause they care about. It's not a new playbook, but Givestar is betting that better mobile tools can make it work at scale.
Whether U.S. donors will embrace a UK upstart in a market already thick with alternatives remains an open question. For now, Givestar has the capital to find out.
