Your embedded LENDING summer reading: What happened in 2025 (so far)

Hi embedded finance friend

I did something new. I published my very first standalone YouTube video: Embedded Finance Explained.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it is a video where I can explain the basics of Embedded Finance and share some practical advice. I would love to hear your feedback, and am curious what a second YouTube video could be about. Just reply to this email or ping me on LinkedIn.

And in the unlikely scenario that you want to hear even more from me, check out the newest episode from the Ventures in the Valley Podcast, where I speak with host Victor even more about Embedded Finance: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

As a reminder, due to the low number of new announcements, my newsletter is in summer mode. I am summarising the biggest stories from January to July 2025. This edition is all about Embedded Lending (well, except today’s podcast episode):

• August 5th → Banking (Link)

• August 12th → Lending (today!)

• August 19th → Payment

• August 26th → Investment & Insurance

And now let’s dive in 👇

Are you building something new in Embedded Finance? Feel free to reach out for a free intro call, and maybe I (or somebody from my network) can help. More info here

We Want to Make Neobanks Useless (Podcast with Procountor)

Discover how Procounter, Finland's largest accounting software company, is revolutionising small business banking through embedded finance. Guest Juho Putkonen sits down to discuss how they're aiming to make neobanks obsolete by building banking services directly into their invoicing and accounting platform.

Procounter serves over 100,000 Finnish companies through their accounting software (~13.5% of Finland's GDP in invoices). But they identified a massive pain point: traditional banks were charging businesses around €80 per month just for data transfers between bank accounts and accounting software, with weeks-long onboarding processes. Their solution? Partner with challenger bank Alisa Bank to offer embedded banking at €10 per month with instant data integration.

In our podcast episode, we talk about:

• The adoption of their Embedded Banking product

• Their partnership with Alisa Bank

• The future roadmap, including other financial products

• Lessons learnt and advice for builders

You can find the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Top Non-Financial Brands Stories in Embedded Lending (Jan - Jul 2025)

My comment: The first seven months of Embedded Lending were driven by non-financial brands in the eCommerce, restaurant software, business software and the healthcare industry. Maybe healthcare is a bit surprising, but otherwise, I would say these are the industries most targeted for new lending offerings.

A few other things stood out for me:

• Country → Most of the announcements were related to Germany. On the one hand, this makes sense as the British market had already adopted new lending products earlier, and Germany is the largest economy in Europe. Or maybe it’s just because of my personal bias? What announcement from other countries did I miss?

• Size of company → I am happy to see that not just the large US tech companies are offering Embedded Lending in Europe, but also smaller software companies.

• B2B → Rather unsurprisingly, all of the announcements are related to B2B financing, and none are for consumer financing.