The CEO of Prezzo has said “my mind is pretty blown” after raising £4.5 million for his FinTech TiPJAR.
James Brown (pictured) started the cashless tipping platform from his bedroom in 2019, when he was retail director at BrewDog.He would go on to lead its bars business as MD then CEO but left in late 2024 for Prezzo.
In the background he was building TiPJAR, which has just secured the growth capital investment from YFM Equity Partners.
“My mind is pretty blown as I started this business in my bedroom frustrated at how hard and murky the world of tipping could be for both businesses and the tipped workers,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“My first try I failed and it wasn’t until I found highly skilled, capable and patient co-founders in Ben Thomas and Paul Stancer did we really start going.”
Thomas serves as CEO at the London-based SaaS platform, which helps operators collect, allocate and distribute tips and service charges fairly and transparently, ensuring compliance in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
He was previously co-founder and MD of consultancy Coachmatch – now Wondrous People – and was GM for one of the UK’s largest film extras’ agencies.
Stancer, the firm’s CTO, has years of experience working for World Remit as head of global integration as well as large scale payment concepts for blue chip companies including ASOS, Barclays and Hitachi.
He wrote on LinkedIn: “What started as an idea that James Brown and Ben Thomas pitched to me 7 years ago – to provide fair and transparent cashless tipping – has grown into the UK’s #1 tips and tronc distribution platform.
“We built it from the ground up for the hospitality and service industry and now have more than 5,000 sites live across the UK, including pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, cafes and QSR brands.
“We currently process over £130 million in tips annually, and support more than 75,000 hospitality workers with faster payouts, real-time visibility and the reassurance that every tip is allocated fairly.
“But we’re not complacent, we’ve taken this investment to accelerate our product development and scale it globally.”
Thomas said: “Hospitality businesses are operating in an environment of rising costs, tighter regulation and evolving expectations from both customers and staff. Our platform helps operators navigate this complexity while building trust with their teams. We’re excited to partner with YFM as we scale the business and continue to set the standard for fair, transparent tipping.”
Kit Maclaren, investment director at YFM, added: “TiPJAR has established itself as the clear market leader in a fast-growing and increasingly regulated area of hospitality operations. The team has built a highly scalable platform with strong customer adoption and a compelling value proposition for both operators and staff.”
Exec who transformed Starling risk controls after £29m fine to leave