eBay's embedded lending offering is coming to Germany

Hi embedded finance friend

I have mentioned before that I prefer smaller events over bigger ones. After thinking about it for a long time, I have decided not to attend Money2020 Europe this year, even though I have a free ticket (yes, I guess that’s a flex). I am sure I would have networked and learned a lot in Amsterdam, but since I am missing a very concrete goal with this trip, I decided to work on my ongoing projects.

Instead, I look forward to several smaller events in the following weeks: Fintech BBQ, Stablecoin Dinner, a few Summer Fests and more.

And a short recap, last Thursday, the Nordic Fintech Summit in Helsinki was a blast. I gave a brief keynote and moderated a panel on Banking-as-a-Service. The crazy part? All three panel participants were bankers (including two from incumbent banks). I am still thinking of writing a summary of the event and diving deeper into the BaaS opportunity for banks, but I haven’t managed to do so. Let me know if you are interested!

And now let’s dive in 👇

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eBay Expands Embedded Lending Offering to Germany

What happened: eBay Germany announced a partnership with British Embedded Lending provider YouLend (Press release via email). The partnership enables eBay’s German merchants to apply for and receive funding directly within its online services. The two companies have been partners in the UK since 2021 and are extending this partnership to Germany.

My comment: eBay is one of the few non-financial brands that offers Embedded Finance products in different jurisdictions around the globe. This includes eBay’s home market in the US, the UK, and now Germany (or maybe even more?). It is surprising that eBay took four years to take the lending product from the UK to Germany, especially considering that Germany is an eBay core market. But I guess better late than never. (Edit: eBay Germany has already offered an embedded lending product since 2022, but in partnership with Iwoca; eBay Germany)

What I found most interesting about the partnership is that merchants do not have to apply for the financing in the first place. Instead, merchants are automatically checked based on their eBay transaction history. When a merchant is eligible for financing, the funding offer is visible within the eBay seller dashboard, and the seller only needs to accept it. Most applications for embedded lending products are already much shorter than lending applications via traditional banks. So you can argue that the benefit of this feature is somewhat limited. However, it is likely not so much about saving a step in the application process for merchants who wanted to apply anyway, but rather showing those merchants who didn’t consider using it that they could receive external financing.

Juuli Launches Freelancer Credit Card: Embedded Finance for the Gig Economy

What happened: Even though Juuli is headquartered in London, it targets freelancers in the EEA with an invoicing and payment solution. The startup has extended the offering and partnered with Visa and Stripe to launch a freelancer credit card (The Paypers).

My comment: I haven’t encountered Juuli before, but it seems the company targets freelancers based in the EEA with global clients. The main difference from other invoicing apps is that a freelancer who uses Juuli signs an agreement with Juuli that grants Juuli the right to invoice and collect payments from the freelancer’s clients on their behalf. Therefore, Juuli seems to target individuals who haven’t registered a company or set themselves up as freelancers in their country. Additionally, Juuli offers businesses a payment solution for freelancers they work with directly.

Juuli’s focus on the gig economy and helping companies manage payments to freelancers is an interesting play (even though I don’t fully get the focus on freelancers without a company). The credit card launch is a logical extension of an invoicing product, even though the move from accounts receivable to accounts payable seems relatively early for a startup of the size of Juuli. However, Juuli already uses Stripe for payment collection and launching the Stripe Credit Card for the already onboarded freelancers is likely limited extra integration work. But I do hope it’s not distracting their team from finding the actual product market fit.

From B2C Fintech to Embedded Finance Infrastructure: New Provider on the Rise?

What happened: A few days ago, I came across a LinkedIn post from Auric founder Koen, who described their pivot from a B2C Fintech app to an Embedded Finance infrastructure provider (LinkedIn).

My comment: Auric, previously known as Bonsai, started as a Fintech app for Gen Z and Millennials and reached over 100,000 registered members with more than 50,000 linked bank accounts and issued payment cards. However, B2C can be a tough business, and the team soon realised that other companies struggled with the implementations they had built. This resulted in their pivot to B2B and rebrand from Bonsai to Auric. The company now offers loyalty and payment services, for which it has partnered with Mastercard, Monavate, Marqeta, and Checkout.com.

Most notably, it announced a partnership with football team Club Brugge. While concrete details are still missing, Club Brugge seems to leverage Auric’s loyalty and payment components to increase connections between the club and fans. Sports is often used as a B2C area where financial services can be leveraged, and some infrastructure providers have a specific focus on this area.

Personal note: Writing about infrastructure providers is always a fine line. On the one hand, they are an essential pillar in the market, and all Embedded Finance products leverage at least one of these providers. On the other hand, when I write about one, some readers might believe I am biased or consider the content a sales pitch.

That said, I have already decided to publish more content about infrastructure providers, and I will figure out how to make the content relevant and educational. But I do wonder what the best format is. Maybe you can help me?

Top 5 Embedded Finance Review Podcast Episodes

If you are following my publishing schedule closely, you might have realised I did not publish a new podcast episode last Thursday. The last weeks have been quite busy, and while there is always time to record an episode, I did not invest enough time in sourcing the right guest. Luckily, I have a few recordings scheduled for this and next week, so I should be back to the normal cadence soon.

Perhaps this is a good time to recap my podcasting activities, which I started almost one year ago, in June 2024. So far, I have published 24 episodes (click here to see them all), with a strong focus on non-financial brands, but I also included experts and occasionally infrastructure providers.

The top five episodes with the most plays as of today are:

1. Sarina Deuble, McKinsey (#11): Does every bank need an embedded finance strategy?

2. Peder Broms, Cloover (#2): How embedded lending can transform renewables

3. Mark Gerban, Pairpoint (#17): Are in-car payments the future of automotive commerce?

4. Hessel Kuik, Bizcuit (#16): How can banks fight back in embedded finance?

5. Shaul David, Advisor (#5): Why did UniCredit acquire Vodeno 

In other Embedded Finance news

• Billie has announced its partnership with Stripe to enable marketplaces to offer its solutions to their business customers (The Paypers).

• British infrastructure provider Bank of London faces regulatory probes as auditors raise uncertainty about the future (Finextra).

• US infrastructure provider Lithic expands card issuing platform to include American Express Network (PYMNTS).

Event Calendar

• May 21st, Zurich: Embedded Finance Event hosted by newly founded Swiss Embedded Finance Association [More details]

• June 25th, Frankfurt: TechQuartier Digital Finance Accelerator - I will be hosting a Masterclass [More details]