Business estimates AI has saved 25 years of development time and tens of millions of pounds fast-tracking the startup’s growth and enabling the challenger brand to compete with global retail giants.
AI has transformed OnBuy.com from losing £1 million per month to delivering approaching £20 million gross profit in the last 12 months.
The announcement comes after a record-breaking year which saw over £150 million worth of sales through the online retail platform.
Since 2016 OnBuy has disrupted e-commerce with a revolutionary cashback offering, but early strategic decisions to implement industry leading AI have played a pivotal role in its meteoric growth over the last year.
The company, which spends over £100,000 a year on AI, estimates that the technology has saved the business up to 25 years in development time and tens of millions of pounds of costs.
Cas Paton, CEO and Founder, OnBuy, said: “Becoming an AI-driven business has enabled us to scale further and faster than many thought possible. Without AI, it may have taken decades for us to achieve our current position competing with established global retail platforms. The increased competition our platform is providing is good news for sellers and consumers alike.”
The world’s first cashback marketplace – which has just been named in the 2025 Sunday Times 100 Tech list of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies – is now using AI across the entire company for operational efficiency, enhancing both customer and retail experiences and driving customer loyalty and retention. The technology business is also using AI to reduce fraud risk, help retailers improve sales performance and expediate the company’s international rollout across the EU and USA.
Paton said: “AI has democratised the tech landscape and enabled ambitious challenger brands like ours to compete on a global scale at a speed that simply wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. It has also allowed us to free up resource to focus on further developing our pioneering cashback offering, maximising value for over 6 million of our customers.
“We haven’t even scratched the surface of what AI can achieve for our business – we have a number of game-changing AI-fuelled projects in development that will fuel rapid future growth.”
OnBuy is planning to deliver a number of additional AI-driven features in the coming months, including autocategorisation, which will revolutionise how retailers list products on the platform. Sentiment analysis, cross-selling and automatic language detection are also in development, which will improve functionality as the business expands its presence around the world.
To further fuel its international growth this year the company took the strategic decision to move its HQ from Bournemouth to London and launch a permanent base in New York. The move is designed
to enable the challenger to attract the best tech talent from around the world as it grows its headcount by 30% in 2025.
As a pure tech product, OnBuy owes its ability to rapidly grow across the world to the fact that it’s able to keep infrastructure costs low, leveraging the footprint of retailers and their channel management and fulfilment partners.
With over 6 million customers, OnBuy is the largest UK marketplace and the first in the world to offer instant cashback on every product across its site.
Founded by Paton in 2016, OnBuy is recognised as one of the fastest growing British tech challenger brands providing customers with a simple way to earn and spend cashback instantly as they shop.
OnBuy has been listed in the FT1000 of Europe’s fastest-growing companies and the Deloitte Fast 50 for three years running, as well as the Deloitte EMEA Tech Fast 500 in 2024.
In January 2025 it was listed in The Sunday Times 100 Tech, Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.
As a pure online marketplace that does not stock its own inventory, the platform sets itself apart by partnering with retailers, rather than competing against them. This unique approach has enabled OnBuy to revolutionise cashback rewards in the online marketplace to deliver tangible cumulative value for customers, whilst offering simple fees and clear policies for sellers, as well as the continuous advice and support they require in order to succeed.
With millions of products spanning categories such as electricals, toys, beauty and home and garden, thousands of verified online retailers are empowered to offer competitive prices and exceptional value to consumers.
