Hi from Berlin,
The first two stories in this edition might not be the typical embedded finance story, and neither has made big waves (at least in my circle). But they show how far embedded finance has reached: Tungsten Automation and SAP are (slowly) taking control of the payment flow, because they no longer want it to happen outside their own platform.
Also in this edition: Mews opens its payments to partner software, ExpenseIn pays back expenses with Stripe, Rootline brings Vipps MobilePay to platform merchants, fresh PayFac numbers from Flagship, my podcast episode with Phorest, and Christian von Hammel-Bonten on what it takes to design embedded payments.
One more thing: I am testing a new segment called Friends of EFR. It features people and companies I have worked with and trust, and instead of a paid sponsorship, it runs on a referral model. Which means I wouldn't feature just anybody ;-) Today, I'm kicking it off with the first friend.
Now let's dive in.
Friends of EFR
Morten Laufer, Nova Search: Morten is not just any recruiter. He is well known in the fintech ecosystem and the person I send people to when they are hiring or looking for their next role. He recruits for fintech and embedded finance companies across Europe, and has worked for embedders and enablers alike. You might also know him from my podcast. Growing your team or open to a move? Reach out to Morten and tell him that Lars sent you.
Embedded Payments News
Tungsten Automation embeds payments on a 10x Banking ledger: The invoice automation company, formerly Kofax, has launched Pay+, which picks up once an invoice is approved, uses payment terms and supplier data to decide when and how to pay, and routes each payment through regulated partners, with every transaction recorded on the ledger in real time. It is the first time the London provider's core ledger, which also runs Chase UK and Westpac, has run for an unregulated company. Pay+ goes live in the UK and US in the first quarter of 2027, and Tungsten has more than 25,000 enterprise customers in 32 countries. This is also Tungsten's second attempt: in 2014 it bought a UK bank to fund early invoice payments and sold it again in 2016. This time partners carry the licence and the balance sheet, so why does Tungsten still want its own ledger? (Read the full story)
SAP builds payments into its own software with SAP Pay: The German enterprise software company now lets its customers pay suppliers, employees and affiliates from inside SAP, in fiat currencies or stablecoins, under their existing SAP contracts. Until now, SAP had no payments of its own, and customers connected their own providers. The product comes from Tereina, a new SAP-backed payments company, which says the model can cut payment costs by 25%. Tereina sits as a layer on top of existing payment providers, and there is no word yet on licences, banking partners or which markets go first. (The Paypers)
Mews takes embedded payments a step further: The hospitality software company has launched Payments Checkout, an embeddable checkout that software built on the Mews platform can drop into its own product. Guests pay or store a card without being redirected, and Mews handles card capture, 3D Secure and compliance, with the payment landing straight in Mews. Mews' Jamshed Kulkarni sums up the pitch to partners: payment methods, markets, and rules keep changing, and this checkout means they no longer have to keep up. When Mews received its e-money licence in August, it said it wanted to build exactly the products its customers want, and for me, this is the next step: Mews payments now also run inside partner software connected to Mews, such as booking engines and guest apps. I expect more vertical SaaS companies to try the same. (Mews, Jamshed Kulkarni on LinkedIn)
ExpenseIn pays back expense claims directly with Stripe: The UK expense management platform now pays back approved out-of-pocket expenses itself. Until now, finance teams approved claims in ExpenseIn and then paid them separately, by bank transfer or through payroll. Now they top up a central balance held with Stripe, and ExpenseIn pays approved claims directly from it to the employee's bank account. It went live for all ExpenseIn customers on 6 October with no extra setup. Richard Jones, VP of Product at ExpenseIn, calls reimbursement "the final mile of expense management". (The Paypers)
Rootline brings Vipps MobilePay to platform merchants: The payments provider, built for platforms that serve hundreds or thousands of merchants, has integrated the Nordic wallet through its new PSP API. Every merchant on a platform that processes through Rootline can now offer Vipps MobilePay, online or at physical events such as festivals, without signing its own agreement with the wallet. The integration went live in under a month, and at Copenhagen's Culture Night, Rootline processed 20,000 MobilePay payments over one October weekend through Preo, a commerce provider for festivals and events. (The Paypers)
Motorhome Depot moves high-value sales into one flow with LoopingOne and emerchantpay: The UK marketplace connects motorhome sellers and buyers through a nationwide network of brokers. It is the first merchant on a joint product from LoopingOne, an Amsterdam deal-flow platform for high-value transactions, and the acquirer emerchantpay. Once the buyer and seller agree, the broker runs the sale in LoopingOne, with identity checks and payment and settlement in one workflow, and pays out the seller the same day, replacing a manual payment process. The two now offer it to businesses and marketplaces across the UK and Europe. So Motorhome Depot is the first customer, while LoopingOne and emerchantpay own the payment product. What I find more interesting is who it is built for: marketplaces where a buyer, a seller and a broker all sit in one large sale. (The Paypers)