Allica Bank buys Kriya + Wayflyer's platform play

Hi embedded finance friend

Autumn has officially arrived in Berlin, with all its pros and cons: lovely red and yellow leaves and lots of rain.

Also, the days are getting shorter, and most of us have fewer activities planned. So what better way to embrace the cozy season than with some embedded finance events? (Smooth transition, right? 😉)

Virtual Event on November 7th → Want to learn more about Embedded Lending? Join us for an Ask Me Anything where you can grill people who have actually built these products. No question too basic, no question too nerdy. [Register here]

Berlin Event on November 19th → Confused by the jungle of fintech providers? Join us for a casual after-work event where our builders share their lessons on stage, and you can network with the people who actually matter in the ecosystem. [Register here]

And now let’s dive in 👇

Allica Bank Acquires Embedded Lending Platform Kriya to Expand Customer Reach

British business bank Allica Bank has acquired embedded lending provider Kriya.

Allica Bank received its banking licence in 2019 and is offering business accounts, savings products and financing options to SMEs in the UK. Allica Bank has grown significantly over the last few years, achieving profitability for the first time in 2023 (Allica Bank) and surpassing £3 billion in lending and £4 billion in deposits in 2024 (Allica Bank).

Kriya, formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance, was launched in 2011 and offers a B2B payment and financing solution for platforms. While integrating Kriya, platforms can offer B2B BNPL, invoice financing and working capital loans to their customers. As previously covered, Kriya has partnered with Stripe in 2024 for its B2B BNPL product in the UK (EFR) and with Motoring and Cycling Merchant Halfor for purchase financing (EFR).

This acquisition adds another example to the trend of banks (even though it’s a neobank) buying embedded finance providers. For me, the strategic play here is pretty straightforward: Allica Bank is betting on embedded finance as a new customer acquisition channel.

As Allica continues to scale, acquiring customers directly becomes increasingly challenging and expensive. Kriya changes that dynamic. Through Kriya's platform integrations, Allica Bank can now reach businesses that are already using these platforms but aren't yet banking with Allica. The beauty of this approach is that it starts with a financing relationship (e.g., B2B BNPL, invoice financing, or working capital loans), which naturally creates an entry point. Once a business has its first positive experience with financing through Kriya (powered by Allica), there's a great potential to convert them into full banking customers over time.

E-commerce Lender Wayflyer Launches Hosted Capital Platform Financing Solution

E-commerce financing provider Wayflyer has launched Hosted Capital, which allows platforms to offer financing products to their own customers (Business Wire).

Wayflyer, founded in Ireland, operates in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few European countries (incl. the UK, Germany, Spain) and targets exclusively e-commerce and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies with financing products.

Until now, e-commerce businesses had to discover and apply for Wayflyer financing on their own. Hosted Capital changes this by enabling platforms to integrate Wayflyer's financing directly into their offerings. Platforms can now display indicative financing offers to their customers and earn commissions when those customers choose a Wayflyer product.

But here's the catch: this isn't fully embedded finance. When a business wants to move forward with financing, it gets redirected to Wayflyer's own platform to complete the application. The user experience breaks out of the platform rather than staying seamlessly embedded within it.

This approach likely makes integration significantly easier for platforms since they don't need to handle the whole application flow. And honestly, this looks like a first step. I guess that Wayflyer is testing the waters with a lighter integration model before eventually building out a fully embedded product where the entire journey stays within the platform. Long term, offering both options makes sense: hosted capital gives platforms an easy entry point to start offering financing. At the same time, a fully embedded product delivers the seamless experience that drives better conversion rates. Different platforms will want different levels of integration depending on their resources and priorities.

MrBeast Files Trademark for "MrBeast Financial" Entering Fintech Space

YouTube star MrBeast has filed an application to trademark the brand "MrBeast Financial". The story was discovered by RollingStone (first time I can quote them 😉), and besides the trademark application, we don't know anything else.

MrBeast, whose real name is James Donaldson, is best known for his YouTube videos but also owns a burger brand, a chocolate company and lunch kits. I haven't tried any of his products, and they might be good. But it's also fair to assume that much of their success comes from MrBeast's massive distribution reach and loyal fanbase.

So the big question: can that same formula work for financial services? Selling burgers or chocolate bars through brand recognition and social media reach is one thing. Financial products are another. They require trust, regulatory compliance, and often long-term relationships. MrBeast has the attention and the audience, but financial services will test whether that translates into actual product adoption and sustained usage.

To be clear, there's no indication this will involve embedded finance. This looks more like a branded financial services play, similar to what Richard Branson did with Virgin Money. A recognisable non-financial brand leveraging its reach to enter financial services directly. Whether MrBeast Financial becomes a neobank, a credit card, investment products, or something else entirely remains to be seen. But it's worth watching which markets they launch in, what products they choose, and whether MrBeast's audience actually converts into financial services customers.

In other Embedded Finance news

• Edenred and Visa have entered into a strategic partnership to develop payment solutions for businesses and employees across Europe (The Paypers).
• Embedded Lending orchestrator provider Groov has added Iwoca to its embedded lending platform as a new financing partner (LinkedIn).
• US bank Fifth Third sees Embedded Finance as a growth engine (PYMNTS).
• US Truist Bank is piloting an embedded banking solution that enables treasury workflows (such as reconciliation and reporting) and real-time payments and approvals within supported enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (PYMNTS).
• 94% of enterprises in the US plan to increase their investments in embedded finance, with three out of four planning to increase investments in the next 12 months, according to a study commissioned by US bank Green Dot. Companies are focused on banking (80%), payments (72%), payroll (61%) and investing (57%) products or features (PYMNTS).

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this edition.

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Best wishes from Berlin,

Lars Markull (LinkedIn)