A price comparison platform which enables small businesses to assess the relative cost of payment services is raising millions of pounds to fund its growth.

Sky News understands that Tuza, which launched last September, has secured £4m of seed capital from investors led by Connect Ventures. Northzone, an early-stage backer of Spotify, also participated in the round, alongside Triple Point and Entrepreneur First.

Tuza, which had raised £1.5m in pre-seed funding nearly a year ago, aims to tackle inertia among SMEs in the £205bn payments sector, with more than 90% of smaller companies remaining with the same payment provider for more than a year, regardless of the rates available elsewhere. Money latest: Seven tips for getting an upgrade on a plane The start-up uses pricing technology to display rates from providers such as Barclaycard, Revolut and Worldpay online.

It says it has compared £1.5bn in SMEs' card turnover since its launch eight months ago. According to its figures, a typical corner shop could save more than £5,000-a-year by switching payment providers.

"Our latest round of investment underscores the urgency of our mission," said Ed Hardy, Tuza's chief executive and co-founder of Tuza. "Businesses shouldn't bear high costs due to a lack of understanding about where or how to find better deals.

"Our platform provides instant, transparent access to the best solutions for each business. "It not only saves time, but also introduces a level of pricing fairness previously unseen in the industry." Tuza cited research suggesting that two-thirds of merchants are unaware of how much they pay in transaction fees.

It has set a goal of reaching 100,000 merchants on its platform. Rory Stirling, a partner at Connect Ventures said Tuza's approach "not only streamlines the complexities of payment processing but also empowers UK businesses with unprecedented transparency and control".

"Finally the days of opaque pricing structures and painstaking comparisons are a thing of the past, marking a significant leap forward for the industry.".