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2025 in Review: A Year of Scale, Delivery and Smarter School Payments

December 10, 2025

As we approach the end of 2025, it’s a good moment to reflect on a year of transformational progress at esenda. This year has been about listening closely to schools, strengthening our foundations, and delivering practical improvements that make managing payments clearer, faster and more efficient.

From product delivery and platform growth to partnerships and people, 2025 has been a milestone year for esenda.

Built With Schools, and Partners

Throughout 2025, our development focus has been firmly rooted in real-world feedback from schools using esenda every day. Over the course of the year, we delivered 22 streams of work, all designed to remove friction and give finance teams greater clarity and control.

Key improvements delivered this year include:

  • Upgraded dashboards, providing more insightful and accessible payment reporting
  • BACS improvements, strengthening reliability and performance
  • The ability to view pending payments, improving visibility and confidence
  • Payment request links, helping schools collect payments more quickly and easily
  • Improved reconciliation, significantly reducing manual effort

Alongside feature delivery, much of our development effort in 2025 focused on laying the technical foundations for future partnerships, including enhancements to checkout, payment links and our upcoming partner dashboard. While not quite visible yet, this groundwork positions us well for several exciting partnership announcements in 2026. Watch this space!

Reaching New Scale, Built on Trust

2025 was also a landmark year in terms of scale. Payment volume processed through the esenda platform reached £1.5 billion, including a milestone month where we exceeded £200 million in payments.

We were especially proud to see our first school, The Perse, process over £100 million through the esenda platform; a clear sign of the trust schools place in esenda to manage high-value, mission-critical payments.

Processing payments at this scale requires reliability, security and consistency. Schools are trusting esenda with very large payment files and complex payment flows, and that trust continues to underpin everything we do.

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Supporting Schools Beyond the Platform

The platform is powerful, and we’re here to guide you. In 2025, we delivered over 100 training and onboarding sessions with schools, helping finance teams feel confident, supported and fully equipped to get the most from esenda.

These sessions have played a key role in helping schools streamline processes, reduce admin time and adopt best practices for managing both domestic and international payments.

Alongside benefits for finance teams, many schools also told us they’ve seen improved experiences for parents, with clearer payment journeys and more flexible options.

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A New Brand and Growing Resource Hub

This year also marked the launch of a refreshed esenda brand and new website, reflecting the maturity of our platform and our focus on clarity, confidence and transparency.

Alongside the new site, we expanded our range of blogs, resources and case studies, sharing practical guidance and real examples from schools using esenda. It’s been particularly rewarding to see schools proud to share evidence of the time saved, efficiencies gained and improvements achieved, helping others learn from their experiences.

Listening in Person: Events and Community

Staying close to the school community remains essential. In 2025, the esenda team attended both the WCBS User Conference and the ISBA Annual Conference, giving us valuable opportunities to speak directly with school leaders and finance teams.

These conversations continue to influence our priorities and reinforce the importance of building payment solutions around real operational challenges.

Partnerships That Continue to Grow

Partnerships remain central to esenda’s approach. Throughout 2025, we continued our close relationship with WCBS, supporting schools with integrated, reliable payment solutions.

Behind the scenes, we’ve also been laying the foundations for a number of new partnerships. We’re super excited about what’s coming and look forward to announcing more in 2026.

Growing the esenda Team

To support our growing platform and school community, esenda also welcomed three new team members in 2025, with additions across marketing, product and development. Growing our team with the right skills and perspectives has helped us deliver faster, communicate more clearly, and continue building a platform schools can rely on.

Looking Ahead to 2026

2025 has been a year of delivery, scale and strong foundations. With a more capable platform, a growing team, deeper partnerships and increasing payment volumes, we’re heading into 2026 with confidence and momentum.

Our focus remains unchanged: helping schools manage payments with clarity, reliability and ease, while continuing to evolve esenda in line with the real challenges finance teams face.

Thank you to every school and partner who has been part of our journey this year. We’re excited for what’s next.

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