Debt collection is rarely the first thing platforms think about when building their fintech stack. But for SMEs, unpaid invoices are one of the most painful operational problems they face, and until recently, there was no embedded solution to address them.
In this Embedded Finance Review Podcast episode, I speak with Matteo Benedetti, co-founder and CEO of Debtist. Debtist is a digital debt collection provider based in Berlin that embeds collection directly into vertical software platforms and marketplaces, so SMEs can recover unpaid invoices without ever leaving the tool they already use.
In just over two years, Debtist has built close to a dozen embedded partnerships, reached €12M ARR, and is already profitable.
Before founding Debtist, Matteo worked as a consultant at McKinsey, where he developed a habit of picking the most boring projects. Debt collection, he argues, is one of the most overlooked opportunities in fintech infrastructure.
Key Takeaways:
- How embedded debt collection works and what the user journey looks like inside a vertical SaaS
- Why are the same platforms that rejected Debtist in 2024 now coming to them
- How Debtist built their entire tech stack in-house and why that turned out to be the right call
- The pricing model behind embedded collection and how platforms can monetise it
- What it takes to build a profitable fintech from day one as a penny pincher