Ellis Taylor

"We probably got to the point where we could successfully raise because investors had more confidence in us seeing the experience of the individuals supporting us."

1. Tell us a bit about your startup and why you founded it?

I started out as a legacy currency broker and my brother’s a software engineer. We saw that SMEs were constantly battling friction when managing cross-border payments: unfair pricing, delays and painful reconciliation.

A report from Neo backed it up. 55% of SMEs struggle with unfair pricing, 45% with payment delays and 42% with reporting issues.

So we built Glyde, a currency automation platform that lets SMEs choose the rate they want to pay their suppliers, automates the payment when that rate is hit and reconciles everything in a few clicks.

The goal is to remove the need for brokers or back-and-forth emails, giving SMEs time and control back. And we haven’t built it alone. Many of our customers have helped shape it and are now investors too. That’s been a huge validation for us.

2. How has the fractional talent you found on Connectd helped you grow your business?

They’ve been instrumental and I didn’t expect that. I wasn’t planning to use Connectd, but once we got the chance to work with pro bono advisors across different areas, it became clear how valuable it was.

They helped us spot and fix problems early. Paul, one of our advisors, helped build a proper risk control framework and ended up investing in the business.

Others supported areas like GTM, user experience testing and product logic. Their advice helped us avoid costly mistakes and definitely played a part in helping us raise funding. Investors had more confidence seeing that level of experience around us.

3. How crucial is it to bring boardroom experience to support your business?

Really important. Once we moved past fundraising and product validation, we needed to focus on execution, especially as we started hiring.

A lot of our advisors have CRO or board-level experience, so I leaned on them to help build the infrastructure and processes that would give the team direction without taking away their autonomy.

That strategic support helped us create a clear framework and operating rhythm so when we’re ready to scale, we know exactly how to move.

4. If you’ve raised funding after working with Connectd, how will this shape your business plan for the months ahead?

We’re just closing a £400K round at a £4M pre-money valuation, which we’re really proud of. One of our advisors who saw the business go from idea to production-ready MVP invested in the round, which was a big moment.

The funds will go towards finalising integrations, launching our MVP, migrating existing customers and growing the team. We’ve been lucky with early hires and now we’re focused on building a strong GTM team to capture market share.

Longer term, we want to sit alongside the likes of Wise and Revolut but with a laser focus on SMEs. That segment has been overlooked for too long and Glyde is built specifically to serve them.