Adyen and Fresha have launched Fresha Capital, an embedded lending product that allows beauty and wellness businesses to access financing directly within the Fresha platform (Adyen). The product is now live in seven markets: the US, UK, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden. Over $5.5 million in loans have already been issued.
Fresha is a marketplace platform for beauty, wellness, and self-care that serves approximately 140,000 businesses and 450,000 professionals globally, facilitating more than 35 million appointments per month. Unlike most vertical SaaS providers, Fresha offers its core business software for free and monetises through payments and additional services (TechCrunch).
How it works
Fresha Capital offers loans from $500 to $50,000, pre-approved based on sales performance data from the Adyen payments integration. Businesses must process payments through Fresha to qualify, and eligibility increases as transaction volume grows (Fresha). Funding decisions use Fresha activity rather than traditional credit checks, with no impact on the owner's personal credit score. Repayments are collected automatically as a percentage of daily sales, and loan terms run up to nine months with no fees for early or late payments.
Positioning against traditional banks
Fresha positions the product explicitly against bank lending. While banks require business plans, audited financial statements, and extensive paperwork, Fresha Capital assesses payment data and proactively offers loans based on business activity (Fresha). Target use cases include renovations, hiring, opening new locations, equipment upgrades, and bridging cash flow gaps.
The embedded payments to the embedded lending playbook
Fresha's move follows a well-established pattern: vertical SaaS providers that start with embedded payments often expand into lending. Adyen's Co-CEO Ingo Uytdehaage confirmed the company is doubling down on embedded finance, with revenue from embedded finance customers growing 63% in the last quarter (EFR). Fresha joins other Adyen Capital partners, including Epos Now, Jackrabbit Technologies, and several food and beverage platforms in Australia and Canada. According to Adyen, 80% of businesses that accept a Capital offer return for a second loan.
My take
The seven-market launch demonstrates Adyen's global advantage. Most embedded lending providers operate in one or two markets; launching simultaneously across the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and three European countries requires regulatory infrastructure that few competitors can match. For other vertical SaaS providers, the underlying logic is clear: if you process payments for SMBs, you're sitting on the data needed to underwrite them.
