Hi Embedded Finance Friend
Sometimes the best stories are the ones nobody's talking about yet. This week was slow until I found out about Uber's quiet launch of its banking offering in the UK.
But before, a well-funded international Fintech & Embedded Finance company is setting up shop in Berlin and is hiring two Account Executives. Interested to learn more? Ping me for an intro.
Separately, I'm working on a project in the card-linked offer (CLO) space. If you have experience in that area, I'd love to chat.
And now let’s dive in 👇
Uber launches embedded banking for UK drivers
Uber has quietly rolled out the Uber Pro Card in the UK, offering drivers instant payouts after each trip, cashback on fuel and EV charging, and a linked bank account with savings interest. The product has been available to US drivers since 2016, and Uber is now bringing embedded finance to Europe.
The UK version runs on a localised infrastructure stack: Griffin, the UK-based BaaS bank, provides the underlying banking services, while Transact Payments issues the Mastercard-branded debit cards. Marqeta, which powers the US product and acquired Transact Payments in 2025, is likely involved as an issuer processor. The product appears to be in an early rollout phase, with drivers joining via waitlist through the app.
Read the full story on Embedded Finance Review.
NatWest Boxed update: AA, Saga live, three more in the pipeline
In a recent interview with Computer Weekly, Andrew Ellis, head of NatWest Boxed, shared an update on the bank's embedded finance division. NatWest Boxed was born out of a 2022 joint venture with Vodeno Group, combining Vodeno's cloud-based BaaS technology with NatWest's banking infrastructure and UK banking licences. The platform went live in July and now serves five customers. Two are public: the AA for lending and savings, and Saga for savings products targeting the over-50s market. Three large customers remain unannounced. Ellis also mentioned they are running a pilot with a small fintech to test the scalability of the offering for smaller partners. The product suite currently covers unsecured lending and savings, with point-of-sale lending expected this year.
Read the full story on Embedded Finance Review.
In other Embedded Finance news
- Bolt Food is expanding its restaurant financing product from Latvia to Lithuania. The product is offered in partnership with Finmid (LinkedIn).
- A few funding announcements
- Hotel-focused vertical SaaS Mews raises €255 million at a €2.1 billion valuation (EU Startups). If you are keen to learn more about Mews and its Embedded Finance offering, listen to our podcast from 2024.
- Solar panel financing company Cloover secures €1.04 billion in debt financing (EU Startups). Cloover was on our podcast as well. You can find the episode here. (I will leave it up to you to decide whether it's correlation or causation that two of my podcast guests closed substantial financing rounds 😉)
- Orchestration and frontend embedded banking provider Aazzur closes £2 million funding round (Fintech Switzerland).
- Expense management and Financial OS provider Pennylane secures €175 million in funding (EU Startups).
- ChatGPT confirms it will charge a 4% fee on orders placed through its AI search. It compares the fee to the much higher fees of marketplaces such as Amazon and Etsy. But is that the right comparison? (Marketpulse)
- US provider Treasury Prime announced the addition of i3 Bank and Coastal to its industry-leading Bank Network. The expansion further strengthens Treasury Prime’s growing ecosystem of more than 20 financial institutions (Treasury Prime).
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)
