Hi Embedded Finance Friend
Today is the last day of Q1 2026. Despite all the noise about economic uncertainty, European companies are continuing to build embedded finance products at pace, and the teams behind them are growing. If you are thinking about what Q2 looks like for you professionally, here are three opportunities worth knowing about:
- Buena -> The Berlin-based property management software and service provider is building a banking product, as the CEO stated on X. The company has been around for a few years (I remember when it was founded as Home HT back in 2016), but has regained substantial growth with new leadership and investors (incl. 20VC with Harry Stebbings). And if you do reach out to them, make sure to listen to this podcast episode before.
- GetYourGuide -> The online travel company is looking for a Senior Payments Lead. Arguably, not a pure Embedded Finance role, but still an interesting opportunity
- Undisclosed -> A major European platform is looking for someone to own its payment provider relationships, including PSP strategy and commercial negotiations. If that's your world, reach out, and I'll connect you.
And if none of these roles suits you, I invite you to join us on April 15th in Berlin for our Embedded Finance Review Event: Register Now (We will release more tickets in a few days, so sign up for the waitlist.)
And now let’s dive in 👇
SumUp Adds Investing. At What Point Do Its Merchants Still Need a Bank?
What happened: SumUp partners with Upvest to launch in-app investing ++ Merchants can invest idle cash in money market funds from €1 ++ Launching in Germany first, Europe and UK rollout to follow
SumUp is partnering with Berlin-based Upvest to bring in-app investing to its merchant platform. Starting this month in Germany, merchants can allocate their SumUp balance into euro-denominated money market funds from as little as €1, with a broader rollout across Europe and the UK planned for the coming months. Upvest handles everything underneath: execution, settlement, custody, regulatory reporting, and tax processing. SumUp built much of its banking and lending infrastructure in-house, but for investing, the complexity of handling securities sits far enough outside the core merchant proposition that partnering makes more sense. The launch adds investing to a product stack that already includes payment acceptance, business banking, lending, invoicing, and POS hardware. Put that list together, and the question becomes real: at what point does a SumUp merchant still need a traditional bank?
Solaris Is Cutting 80 Jobs and Calling Itself an AI-Native Bank. The More Interesting Shift Is Who It Now Wants to Serve.
What happened: Solaris cuts 80 roles and announces AI-native bank strategy ++ Platform rebuilt around standardised reusable modules ++ New CEO Steffen Jentsch sets new direction three months into the role
Solaris has announced a major repositioning under new CEO Steffen Jentsch, who joined in January. Around 80 roles are being cut from a workforce of approximately 400; the platform is being rebuilt around standardised, reusable modules; and the company is calling itself Europe's first AI-native bank. The AI label is the easy part. Every financial institution in Europe is attaching AI to its strategy right now, and Solaris has operated under close BaFin scrutiny since 2022, which makes pushing hard on automation more complicated than the press release suggests. The more interesting question is who Solaris now wants to serve. Its history, from neobank infrastructure to Samsung Pay to the ADAC co-brand migration, points to a company that has struggled to settle on a stable position. The signals in this announcement, including named partners like Börse Stuttgart Group, which operate in heavily regulated environments, suggest a shift toward financial institutions rather than the non-financial brands for which classic BaaS was built. Whether that is the repositioning that finally sticks is what to watch.
In other Embedded Finance news
Visa Direct partners with Moonrise by Lunar for Nordic expansion: Visa Direct is integrating Moonrise's local payment infrastructure to access domestic payment rails across Denmark, Sweden, and Norway through a single API, giving its clients real-time payment and virtual account capabilities across the Nordics without separate local integrations. (Source)
Ryft and EPOS Now launch integrated payments for franchises: UK-based Ryft is integrating with EPOS Now, which serves over 100,000 businesses globally, to deliver unified payments and POS infrastructure for franchises and multi-location operators, replacing fragmented reconciliation across separate tools. (Source)
Adflex and SAP Taulia partner to automate virtual card payments: Adflex is integrating straight-through processing into SAP Taulia's working capital platform, automating virtual card acceptance for suppliers and removing manual processing and PCI-DSS compliance burden at scale. (Source)
Alviere and Oracle sign multi-year embedded finance deal: US provider Alviere is integrating its embedded finance infrastructure into Oracle's industry application suites, covering card issuance, payments, pay-by-bank, and treasury functionality, with Oracle also participating in a new investment round in Alviere. (Source)
US Senator Warren questions MrBeast over the acquisition of teen fintech Step: Warren sent a 12-page letter to Beast Industries raising concerns about plans to reintroduce crypto to Step's platform, which serves millions of teenagers, and flagging the role of banking partner Evolve Bank, which has been under a Federal Reserve consent order since 2024. (Source)
74% of embedded finance platforms report lower fraud rates: A new PYMNTS Intelligence report finds that platforms embedding financial services directly into business workflows are outperforming traditional standalone fraud monitoring, while 35% of organisations have delayed embedded finance rollouts specifically because of fraud concerns. (Source)
That's it for this edition. If you enjoy my newsletter, podcast, or events, the best way to support me is to share them with others in your network. Feedback is always welcome, too.
Need help with an embedded finance project? Visit my website and let's talk.
Best wishes from Berlin,
Lars Markull (LinkedIn)
