Hi from Berlin,
Bye-bye summer break and hello September! After a couple of weeks of recapping the first half of the year, I am back with the usual weekly newsletter format. Did I say usual? As we tested before summer break, going forward, each Tuesday newsletter mailing will focus on either Lending, Payments, or Banking. Today starts with Lending. I haven't decided yet whether to add a fourth category for anything outside these three buckets, or just keep these three. Writing this newsletter over the past years has taught me not to plan too far in advance, but to test it on the go. So I guess we will find out together :)
Please note, the different mailing types are now available in your newsletter settings. Thus, you can choose whether to receive all mailings or just a few selected ones. Click here or check the link in the footer of any EFR newsletter.
Now let's dive in! 👇
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Embedded Lending News
- Glovo and PragmaGO partner in Spain and Romania: The on-demand delivery platform launched PragmaCash for its merchants in both markets, in Spain in mid-July with financing from €750 to €150,000 and in Romania from RON 3,000 (~€600) to RON 200,000 (~€39k). Limits are based on past delivery revenue, contracts are signed digitally via SMS, and repayment runs in equal weekly instalments over four or twelve months. Glovo already runs a cash advance programme with finmid under its own Glovo Capital branding in Spain, Portugal and Poland. PragmaCash sits differently, with the lender's brand prominently displayed and PragmaGO given a dedicated space in the Glovo app, which puts it closer to distribution than to embedded finance. So why did Glovo add this after already offering an embedded solution? Read my guess on EFR
- comrce and YouLend point 24,000 German e-commerce merchants to revenue-based financing: The arrangement has been running quietly since May but was only announced in August. Both the industry and the lender indicate this is an embedded lending product, and it is not (yet). comrce only surfaces the offer through its existing channels, and merchants then go to YouLend to apply directly. My read is that this is (hopefully) a sensible first move before going fully embedded, and the announcement after three months of quiet testing suggests the product cleared an internal bar for external promotion. I would hope a fully embedded solution follows, especially because comrce sits on really interesting data, including order flow across channels, Amazon settlement data and inventory. (YouLend)
- Inbank and Eurobank set up a 50/50 embedded lending joint venture in Greece: The new company will run BNPL, sales finance and consumer lending for Greek merchants, pairing the Estonian lender's platform and operating model with Eurobank's funding. The commercial launch is targeted for Q1 2027. The joint venture is applying to the Bank of Greece for its own Credit Company authorisation, with a domestic bank behind the balance sheet. (Yahoo Finance)
- Parafin adds a second forward-flow facility at $300m: Loans originated across its platform partners will be sold into a rated financing vehicle run by a New York alternative asset manager, sitting alongside an existing $360m arrangement with Cross River Bank and separate commitments from Goldman Sachs, EverBank and First Citizens. The company says it has now financed more than 50,000 businesses through partners including Amazon, Walmart, DoorDash and Gusto. (citybiz)
- GetVantage raises €6.5m to scale its Capital Gateway: The Mumbai company took the round as a mix of equity and debt, lifting its committed financing capacity to around €72m. The money goes into an API layer that lets B2B marketplaces, ecommerce platforms and logistics hubs embed financing in their own merchant flows. India sits well outside our usual geography, but founder Bhavik Vasa's framing travels: capital access should work the way payment gateways already do. (Economic Times)