What happened: Kalder describes itself as an embedded loyalty provider and has just announced their $10.5 million funding (Finextra). With Kalder, a customer can join their favorite brand’s loyalty program. They just need to link their credit or debit card and will receive cashback for purchases at partner retailers. The brand benefits from tracking and insights, with payouts made for each transaction.
My comment: Kalder is not the first provider of this kind, and also here in Europe we have card-linked cashback solution providers. But the announcement and the new Forbes’ piece about US wallet and loyalty provider Ansa (Forbes) made me think. Embedded finance is never easy, but we see so many more B2B companies acing this game (see ServiceTitan above). B2C companies often have a much harder time in achieving this. I always say an embedded finance solution needs to achieve “1+1=3” (My EF Guide), basically, creating magical value when adding fintech into a non-fintech offering. This is complex for B2C, and very often the place to create magical value is around loyalty. Providers like Kalder enable brands to offer loyalty without necessarily entering the fintech game. But I do wonder if next-gen loyalty providers are required to push B2C embedded finance product offerings. What do you think?
