Visa's $100M Bid for Apple Card + New SaaS Embedded Finance Survey Reveals Payment Trends

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Hi embedded finance friend

It’s officially event season for me. Last week, we hosted our first Embedded Finance Review Private Dinner in partnership with Marqeta in London. We brought together a small group of people for great food, drinks, and insightful conversations about smarter payouts. And tomorrow, we will host our sixth public event in Berlin (see more details below).

I had never planned to host that many events in the first place. However, the positive feedback and growing number of registrations show a demand, and the interest from sponsors allows me to continue hosting such events.

After tomorrow’s event, I don’t have any finalised plans for the next events in 2025, but there are a few discussions ongoing. If you want to partner with me for the next event, please let me know.

And now, let’s dive in 👇

We are hosting our sixth and likely biggest Embedded Finance Review on Wednesday in Berlin. A big thanks to our three sponsors: 13books Capital, Swan, and Visa.

We have a great lineup, and tickets are completely sold out - but you can sign up for the waitlist. See you on Wednesday!

The Complex World of Travel Payments (Podcast)

In the newest edition of the Embedded Finance Review Podcast, I speak with Eric-Jan Krausch from 1-CP. Eric is currently building his second venture in the travel (payment) space, and we speak about:

• The travel industry value chain: suppliers, distribution channels, and intermediaries

• How OTAs like Booking.com evolved from brokers to merchants of record

• Why virtual cards are transforming B2B payments in travel

• The challenges of modernizing legacy systems in the industry

• And a lot more!

You can find the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Visa Makes $100m Bid to Replace Mastercard on Apple Card

What happened: Visa has made a $100 million offer to become the card partner of the new Apple Card setup (Reuters). The Apple Card was initially announced in 2019 in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard.

Details: The card received much media attention in the early days. However, Apple and Goldman Sachs were never really happy with the partnership, which resulted in substantial losses for the US bank (9to5Mac). The two companies decided to wind down their partnership once Apple had successfully found a new partner. Apple is a very secretive company, so we will only know for sure when the company announces the new setup. Initial rumours indicated that American Express would have the best shot at replacing the existing partners, but it seems that Visa is not giving up that easily.

Such a bid to take over a card portfolio from a competitor is not uncommon, and even though the current partners are struggling to make it work for them, the Apple Card product remains highly attractive. According to some rumours, Apple had signed a lengthy exclusivity deal with Mastercard, so we must see if Visa’s bid is attractive enough for Apple.

The Maturity Roadmap of Embedded Finance within Vertical SaaS

The team of Flagship Advisory Partners has published the first results of their SaaS Embedded Finance Survey (Flagship Advisory Partners). While the survey is focused on the US, I think the key insights are equally relevant for us here in Europe as well:

• Turning Embedded Finance products into a success takes time; there is no shortcut

• Many companies start with payments as the first financial product (biggest opportunity and pain points)

• But lending and banking (cards and accounts) follow; especially lending will likely catch up with payments over the next few years

In other Embedded Finance news

• Mastercard brings embedded virtual card tech to commercial payments (PYMNTS).

• Embed Everything: If you read my Embedded Finance Primer, you know that I argue that only five financial products can be embedded. Nevertheless, there are many different flavours and other products that can be embedded, too. Unit’s CEO Itai Damti has listed a few, and his followers added more. If you need inspiration for what can be embedded, check it out (LinkedIn).

Event Calendar

• April 9th, Berlin: Our 6th Embedded Finance Review Event during FIBE, sponsored by 13books Capital, Swan and Visa [Register here]

• May 15th, Helsinki: Nordic Fintech Summit - I will be hosting a panel discussion [Register here]

• May 21st, Zurich: Embedded Finance Event hosted by newly founded Swiss Embedded Finance Association [More details]

• June 25th, Frankfurt: TechQuartier Digital Finance Accelerator - I will be hosting a Masterclass [Apply here]