Dojo, a UK payments provider serving over 150,000 businesses, has partnered with Liberis to launch Dojo Flex Funds: working capital embedded directly into merchant onboarding. Eligible merchants (£60k+ annual revenue, 12+ months trading) receive capital offers from day one, assessed on real trading data rather than traditional credit criteria. Approval rates sit at 90%.
Dojo is a payments provider, not a non-financial brand, so this is not a textbook example of embedded finance. I'm covering it because more payment providers are adding lending on top of their payment infrastructure, raising the bar for what software companies need to offer to stay competitive in merchant services.
What Dojo Is
Dojo provides in-person and digital payment terminals to over 150,000 UK businesses. It is well known in the UK hospitality and retail space but less visible outside the country. Flex Funds is its first embedded lending product.
The Day One Angle
The more interesting product detail is when the capital becomes available. Typically, a merchant spends months with a payment provider before accumulating enough transaction history to qualify for financing. Dojo embeds the offer into onboarding, allowing new merchants to access capital before they have processed a single transaction on the platform. Underwriting relies on trading history brought in from outside Dojo rather than on activity within it.
Liberis Is Back?
This is the second major UK partnership Liberis has announced in under two weeks, following Deliveroo Capital on February 16. Liberis has been relatively quiet for a while, so two announcements in quick succession are worth noting. They are positioning themselves as the default embedded lending layer for UK payment providers and marketplaces, and the pace suggests they are moving deliberately.
