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Polish E-commerce Provider Shoper Launches Two Embedded Finance Products in Partnership with PragmaGO
What happened: Shoper is a leading provider of software solutions that help e-commerce companies in Poland launch and manage their online stores. The company was founded in 2005 and currently employs over 300 people. Most recently, Shoper launched a merchant cash advance solution (PragmaGO) and a B2B Buy Now Pay Later feature (Shoper).
My comment: I have been researching a few Embedded Finance companies in Eastern Europe over the past few months and will highlight a few over the next few weeks. To start with, Shoper is an easy-to-use software that allows you to quickly launch and manage a new e-commerce shop used by both small and large merchants. And not surprisingly, Shoper is venturing into the world of Embedded Finance. It started with a cash advance product, which provides Shoper’s merchants with fast financing based on their existing sales data with Shoper. In a second step, the company also launched a B2B-focused Buy Now Pay Later product, enabling other businesses that want to buy a product from a Shoper-powered e-commerce store with flexible financing options (spreading the payment into 3, 6, 9 or 12 instalments). Shoper is partnering with Polish fintech infrastructure provider PragmaGO for both products.
Over the past few years, we have seen many companies building successful fintech products for e-commerce merchants. This includes payment, banking and lending products. But especially lending products, when offered conveniently and fast, can be a game-changer for merchants. Shoper understands this and helps its merchants grow.
German Pharmacy Marketplace Onfy Launches Embedded Lending with Banxware Partnership
What happened: The German pharmaceutical marketplace Onfy has launched an Embedded Lending offering in partnership with Banxware (Banxware). Onfy sells a wide range of non-prescription items, including drugs and beauty products. Since Onfy is a marketplace, customers buy and receive the products from registered pharmacies across Germany.
My comment: I haven’t seen an Embedded Lending case for pharmacies yet, so that’s a first for me. That said, any company that offers a marketplace where other businesses can sell their products should probably consider an Embedded Lending offering. This trend began with big brands like Shopify, eBay, and Amazon, which often serve as the lighthouse players for this offering. However, Onfy is an excellent example that shows smaller and niche marketplaces can also adopt such an offering. Hopefully, I don’t sound like a broken record, but revenue from the lending offering is often secondary, but what moves the needle is the increase in sales on the marketplace.
Do you think Embedded Lending is a crucial feature for niche marketplaces providers?
Stripe Capital Expands to Germany as Embedded Lending Competition Intensifies
What happened: Last week, Stripe hosted its Stripe Tour in Berlin and announced the launch of different localised products for the German market (Stripe). This included the upcoming launch of Stripe Capital. Stripe Capital is available to normal merchants who want to receive funding to grow their businesses, but it also exists as a platform product. This enables platforms to offer loan products to their customers. Stripe Capital will be rolled out in Germany later this year.
My comment: The announcement of Stripe Capital is not a big surprise, as the European Embedded Lending market is heating up. We are currently seeing many of the stand-alone players that started a few years ago expanding, adopting their products, or refocusing on specific Ideal Customer Profiles. With Stripe, other lending options will become available in the German market, which will be especially interesting for all platforms that have already integrated Stripe for payment acceptance. It will be interesting to see whether the platform offering from Stripe Capital has a chance to compete with standalone embedded lending providers. For this brain exercise, keep in mind that Stripe announced in April 2024 (my newsletter) a more modular approach to their offering, which should make it easier for businesses only to use selective Stripe products.
Do you think Stripe can compete against stand-alone Embedded Lending providers in Europe?
In other Embedded Finance news
One of the first European banking-as-a-service providers, Bankable, has entered administration and shut down (LinkedIn).
Greek core banking provider Natech Banking Solutions has raised USD 33 million in funding (Natech). The funding will be used to launch Snappi, a digital banking joint venture with Piraeus Financial Holdings. Where is the Embedded Finance angle, you may ask? Natech’s technology combined with Snappi’s bank licence is (or will be) available as a banking-as-a-service offering for non-regulated companies to offer banking products (Natech).
Banking-as-a-service is dead? The US provider Unit seems to be fighting the odds. It appears that growth in margins and customer base could make them profitable soon (LinkedIn).
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Best wishes from Berlin,
Lars Markull (LinkedIn)