Odoo's Global Expense Card Launch: 15M Users, 175 Countries - The Biggest Embedded Banking Launch Yet?

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Embedded Finance Dinners

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International business software provider Odoo is launching an expense management card solution powered by Stripe and Mastercard to serve its 15 million users across 175+ countries. The product was presented in a product webinar on YouTube in June, and the Odoo CEO Fabien Punckaers shared a photo of one of the first cards on LinkedIn this week - that’s where I spotted the product launch.

Odoo began as a pure open-source provider of business software in 2005 and has evolved into an all-in-one software solution provider. It targets businesses worldwide with various software solutions, including CRM, project management, invoicing, website creation, and more. The selling proposition is that companies should not spend hours searching for a suitable provider for each specific task, but instead use a single provider, Odoo, especially when tools need to be connected and data needs to be transferred.

As of November 2024, Odoo is valued at €5 billion, has 15 million users and employs over 6,000 people. Their software is used in over 175 countries, with the main markets including the US, India, China, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The card offering itself is not unique, as we have seen many companies in this space launch similar card offerings. According to the YouTube video, Odoo cards are available as physical and virtual cards, including the possibility to add the Odoo cards to a mobile wallet. Customers can add spending limits, merchant categories and other real-time control features. Crucially, the data and card functionality will be integrated into the relevant Odoo services, such as expenses and accounting.

What makes this announcement unique is the international scale of Odoo. There are already international companies with a global presence that offer Embedded Finance products in different continents; however, the cases involving card issuance are limited. This international scale of Odoo also likely put Stripe into the perfect spot as the issuing partner. Realistically, this likely came down to a comparison between Adyen and Stripe, with the US company ultimately winning the deal.

In the YouTube video, it is mentioned that the Odoo cards will be first launched in Europe, and the US will follow later. Odoo is likely keen to roll out the card in as many countries as possible, but can only do so in the countries where Stripe Issuing is available.

I find Odoo a fascinating company and Fabien Pinckaers are an outstanding CEO. If you want to learn more about the company, I highly suggest listening to his podcast interview on 20VC from February 2025.

The Belgian football club Club Brugge has launched Club Pay, a new debit card for its fans and supporters. Starting with the new 2025-2026 football season, every member can request a free card (Club Brugge).

A card owner receives loyalty points when they use the card for payments with Club Brugge partners, such as DAZN, WorldKarts, and Joxx. The loyalty points can be redeemed via the app for benefits from the partners. The card is a debit card that the member connects with their bank account, and each payment is collected by direct debit (commonly referred to as a detached debit card). The major benefit is that after the card is connected to the bank account, it can be used immediately, without the need for a top-up.

Club Brugge is not the first sports club to venture into financial services. I recall that clubs such as Bayern Munich and Benfica Lisbon offered financial services before. However, both clubs had a partnership with a traditional bank, and the supporter was required to open a bank account with that bank. The Club Pay solution by Club Brugge is a proper Embedded Finance product, where the supporter applies, activates and uses the card within the same app. And since it's a detached debit card, the supporter does not have to change bank accounts, but instead uses the new card on top of her existing account.

In the past years, I have seen more sports clubs innovating with financial services, but most of them focus on in-stadium payments. Most importantly, there was a partnership between Austrian payment company Blue Code and OneFootball for in-app payments during the European Football Championship in Germany in 2024. It will be interesting to see whether Club Pay will be successful, and if its success will motivate other clubs to follow suit with a similar solution. One of the deciding success factors for Club Pay and other solutions is likely whether the partners and their benefits are attractive enough for the supporters.

The card product was built in cooperation with Mastercard and Auric. Auric is a Belgian fintech company with a payment institution licence that not only provides card-issuing services but also offers loyalty features. While these services could be relevant for a wide range of companies, Auric seems to focus quite a bit on sports clubs. On its website (Auric), it lists additional revenue streams and insights into payment transactions (which help the club and partners tailor their offering further) as the main benefits for clubs like Club Brugge to venture into a card product.

The US payroll provider Gusto has launched Gusto Money as part of a bigger announcement called Gusto Showcase (Gusto Money). Gusto Money consists of three different financial features:

While presented together under the Gusto Money brand, these features actually rolled out separately throughout 2025: Bill Pay launched in May through the Melio partnership, followed by Payroll Bridge with Parafin in September. Notably, rather than building these financial services in-house, Gusto is leveraging embedded solutions from specialised fintech providers.

There are a few interesting elements in this announcement, but before diving into them, it is essential to mention that the launch is not strictly Embedded Finance. Gusto is a payroll provider, so its core product is not something banks have historically offered; nevertheless, it is still closely related to financial services. Thus, Gusto is likely more fintech than a non-financial brand.

Gusto Money is not the first time the company has offered adjacent financial services. Since 2016, the company has been offering pension plans (401(k) plans) to employees of their customers through a partnership with Guideline. And Gusto seemed to have liked this product offering a lot, as it acquired Guideline completely in August 2025. The company has also been developing employee-focused financial services through Gusto Wallet, which provides employees with early pay access, a debit card, spending and savings accounts, and budgeting tools, essentially creating a comprehensive employee banking experience within the payroll platform. The announcement of three features and the creation of a Gusto Money category indicate that the company is placing an even stronger focus on offering financial services to both employers and employees.

Payroll Bridge, the line of credit for businesses to make payroll when cash flow is tight, seems like a highly logical product extension. We can all imagine the tricky situation of a founder or Managing Director who cannot make payroll, and what it may imply for their employees and their motivation. A line of credit at this point might be a lot more relevant for businesses than at any other point in time. That said, this also means these companies are tight on cash flow, and the underwriting is even more crucial than at different times. Thus, it would be interesting to know how many companies can actually receive the line of credit, as some will definitely be declined.

The strategic logic becomes clearer when considering that small businesses essentially have two main expenses: payroll and vendor payments. Having already dominated the payroll side, Gusto is now targeting the complete payment flow for SMBs.

I was pretty surprised about the launch of Bill Pay and Invoicing, though. Gusto suggests that the location where you manage payroll is also the ideal place to handle accounts receivable and payable. I guess on a high level, this makes sense as it falls under business operation, but how close is it really?

Firstly, payroll and accounts receivable and payable are typically handled separately, and most tools available in the market help you with one or the other - but not both. Therefore, many businesses have likely already set up a system for accounts payable and receivable, even if it's just in their accounting tool or business bank account.

That said, I still get that Gusto made this move. The partnership with Melio is making this move much easier, and in addition, they can put these features under the product Gusto Money. And judging by their website teasing "Coming Soon" features to "Track what's coming in, going out, and available to use—all from one connected hub," it seems like more financial features will indeed follow.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this edition.

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Best wishes from Berlin,

Lars Markull (LinkedIn)