Austrian POS provider ready2order and German embedded lending infrastructure provider finmid have partnered to launch readyMoney, a financing product built directly into the POS software. Businesses in Austria and Germany using ready2order's POS system can now access pre-approved loan offers through their account dashboard. Once approved, funds are deposited into their account within 48 hours.
Strong early traction
Within two months of launch, hundreds of businesses have used readyMoney for equipment, expansion, and marketing. finmid extended offers totalling €190 million. The Net Promoter Score sits at 81, which is remarkably high for a financial product. Whether that satisfaction holds as the loan book matures remains to be seen.
Payments first, lending second
ready2order's core product is a point-of-sale solution, and the company targets businesses in the gastronomy, retail, beauty, and health sectors. While ready2order offers non-financial features such as inventory management (retail) and table overview (gastronomy), everything is built around its payment acceptance product. ready2order partners with Austrian payment company hobex that handles card payments, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay, directly through ready2order's hardware. The lending product is a logical add-on that helps ready2order monetise further and lock in customers into the core product.
Fintech, vertical SaaS, or both?
You could argue that ready2order is more fintech than non-financial brand. I'd say it sits somewhere in between, and two comparisons help illustrate this. Toast, the US POS giant and often-cited embedded finance success story, offers significantly more non-financial features than ready2order: digital ordering, email marketing, and team scheduling. On the other end, SumUp started as a pure payments company with its card reader and only later added vertical software features. So Toast leans more toward vertical SaaS, SumUp more toward fintech, and ready2order sits in the middle. But these lines are blurring. All three are converging on the same playbook: combine payment acceptance with industry-specific software, then layer in lending. The provider who does both well wins.
