Embedded Finance Trends for 2025

Embedded finance is reshaping SME financing, making it easier for businesses of all sizes to access the financing they need to operate and grow. Over the past years, a powerful trend has emerged: financial services are being seamlessly integrated into the operating systems that SMEs use and trust daily. For example, businesses who sell online through a retail platform such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy can also receive financing through those platforms when they most need it; restaurants and pubs can do the same through their food delivery platforms such as Just Eat and Deliveroo. 

This marks a shift from a world where banks were the only provider of financial services. 

As we begin 2025, we want to look forward to the year ahead and predict what we think will be some of the biggest trends platforms, SMEs and all embedded finance customers can expect to see this year. 

A surge in embedded finance partnerships 

Whereas embedded finance used to be adopted mostly by payment companies, today we see a growing range of verticals offering financing, including within travel, tech and procurement, and increasing an ever-growing suite of products from lending to bank accounts and cards for spend.  Shopify, one of YouLend's long-term partners, is a good example of a company who has embraced the embedded finance vision and launched a wide range of products, including merchant financing, bank accounts and debit and credit cards with features tailored to their specific merchants. 

In 2024, for example, as well as launching partnerships with financial services companies such as ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Lopay and PayU,  we also signed deals with food delivery companies Glovo and Deliveroo. 

Embedded finance is going global

In 2024, YouLend established itself as the leading embedded financing platform in France, Poland, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, US, Ireland and Belgium. Proof that embedded finance is now a truly global phenomenon.  

But as embedded finance becomes adopted by global players, the ability to offer multi-currency and multi-geography solutions will become even more critical. Platforms will need to provide seamless, localised financial products to meet the needs of diverse businesses across markets. 

Buy > Build

We also think we’ll see a noticeable shift towards platforms preferring third-party embedded financing providers rather than building in-house. Most platforms that want to offer embedded financing are often exceptional technology companies themselves and consider building their solutions in-house.

However, they increasingly recognise that partnering with a specialised provider offers a faster route-to-market and frees up time to focus on their core services while leaving overheads such as capital provision, risk modelling and regulation to specialist third-party providers. This approach ensures faster and smoother access to credit for their business users, particularly for companies that operate in multiple geographies.

Another big year for AI and ML

Finally, we anticipate significant investment in AI and machine learning technologies that can enhance risk assessment by analysing a wider range of data, including behavioural and transactional information. Platforms have access to a plethora of unique data points that will enable embedded financing solutions to reach businesses who were otherwise beyond the reach of the traditional financing system. We have already introduced AI into our funding approval processes to  make them as quick as possible.

Embedded finance isn’t just solving today’s financial challenges for small businesses—it’s laying the foundation for a future where finance is seamlessly integrated into the everyday operations of businesses, allowing business owners to run their businesses at their own pace and with more flexibility.

It’s going to be a big year.