Visma Acquires Accountable: A Step Towards Embedded Finance & BMW's New Embedded Insurance with Qover

Hi embedded finance friend

I have been thinking about hosting virtual events for the Embedded Finance Review community for some time now. I am still contemplating what the ideal setup is, but I am likely starting with:

• One hour online session

• Aiming for a monthly cadence

• Start with a 20-30-minute interview or panel discussion with selected speaker(s)

• Followed by a discussion round, which is the main element

• Limited number of participants

• No recording

But I still have one central question that I need your help:

And now let’s dive in 👇

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In addition to sponsorships, I have decided to use this space to highlight a relevant offering for Embedded Finance Review readers. The first one is a free workshop hosted by Debit2Go's Co-Founder and CEO, targeting banking and payment providers who want to understand what the push to subscriptions means for them and their customers (Limited to three workshops). Click here if you’re interested, and we’ll follow up with you.

Visma Expands with Accountable Acquisition: Embedded Finance on the Horizon

What happened: Norwegian Visma has announced the acquisition of Belgian invoicing and tax solution Accountable (Visma). Visma was incorporated in 1996 in Oslo following the merger of Multisoft, SpecTec, and Dovre Information Systems. Today, the company is majority-owned by private equity companies and is well-known for acquiring and growing business software for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as freelancers. Accountable is a service for freelancers to write invoices and, even more importantly, manage their taxes. I have covered Accountable very recently after their launch of Accountable banking.

My comment: If you live in Europe, chances are that Visma has acquired a software company in your country, such as Yuki (Netherlands), inFakt (Poland), Buchhaltungsbutler (Germany), Mobilexpense (Belgium), ProSaldo.net (Austria), Bluegarden (Denmark), Holded (Spain), and many more. They are also looking for more (Visma website). Most of these companies offer accounting, payroll, invoicing, or HR software solutions, and they tend to keep their brand, often accompanied by a small “by Visma” addition. Embedded Finance is relevant to almost all of Visma’s companies. Although few of them currently offer financial services, the two most recent acquisitions, Accountable and Mobilexpense, had already provided banking products before their acquisition. Besides these two companies, I found only eAccounting from the Netherlands as another Visma company offering a banking product (although I haven’t checked all of Visma’s companies, to be fair). That being said, I would be stunned if building and launching financial products were not one of the big topics for many of Visma’s companies.

BMW and Mini Ireland Launch Embedded Car Insurance with Qover

What happened: BMW and Mini Ireland have launched an Embedded Insurance product in partnership with Qover (Yahoo Finance). The partnership enables Irish customers to obtain quotes, sign up for policies and manage their insurance online or through customer care support.

My comment: This news piece has caught my eye, even though neither insurance products nor cars are a particular focus topic of mine (Fun fact about myself: I am in my late 30s, have never owned a car, and I hope this will never change). Cars and insurance products are as closely tied as bookkeeping and banking, and many car manufacturers have recognised this and are offering insurance products in one way or another. However, I haven’t seen many where the insurance product is nicely embedded into the existing user journey (perhaps except for Tesla).

Two things stood out to me in this announcement. Firstly, a traditional corporate entity, such as BMW and Mini Ireland, has understood that embedded finance is not just about offering financial services, but about integrating them effectively. I am no expert, but the Irish market is likely not a key market for BMW and Mini, so perhaps this is the first market where this product is being tested before rolling out to others. Secondly, and maybe directly connected to the first point, BMW and Mini Ireland have chosen technology providers (Qover and Wakam) instead of partnering with a traditional insurance company. I would assume that this was the riskier option for the decision maker at BMW and Mini Ireland, as working with an incumbent insurance company is easier to sell internally (perhaps the equivalent of saying nobody gets fired for hiring McKinsey). However, I can see that achieving an outstanding customer experience is much more likely with providers like Qover and Wakam.

Froda Secures $23 Million in Series B Funding: Can It Compete with Europe's Top Embedded Lending Providers?

What happened: Swedish Froda has announced a $23 million Series B funding round (TechCrunch). The company offers a direct-to-business lending product, as well as embedded lending, which enables fintech companies and non-financial brands to provide lending products for their own SME customers.

My comment: If you regularly read Embedded Finance Review, you are aware that Europe already has several Embedded Lending providers, including Banxware (Germany), Finmid (Germany), Liberis (UK), Youlend (UK) and many more. Many of these players target the biggest European markets, such as Germany or the UK. They aim to expand to all of Europe at some point. Still, it's challenging, and the Nordics can be particularly tough: four key countries, but each is relatively small (only Sweden has more than 10 million inhabitants), and each country has its own currency. This often results in a local fintech player having a time advantage and the potential to grow to a significant size before players from other countries can enter the market. In this case, it appears that Froda is expanding before many of its competitors target the Nordic countries, as Froda mentions the UK, Germany, and Ireland as countries with a local presence, in addition to the Nordics. So far, Froda only lists fintech companies as customers (Mimo, Lunar, and Kontist), but they are likely also targeting non-financial platforms, marketplaces, and similar providers. It will be interesting to see how they can compete outside of the Nordics and in what category their first non-financial brand customer falls.

In other Embedded Finance news

• Hospitality software provider Paperchase launches an accounts payable solution with British Embedded Banking provider Weavr. This leverages Comma’s open banking technology that Weavr acquired in 2023 (Finexta).

• German HDI Embedded shared a great “Myths vs. Facts” Edition for Embedded Insurance (HDI Embedded on LinkedIn).

• Swiss retailer Coop, which shut down its banking product just nine months after launching it, has struck a deal with Swiss neobank Vailant. Customers who switch to the neobank receive a 20 CHF voucher for the retailer (MoneyToday).

• The US Investment-as-a-service provider Alpaca raised a $52 million Series C and aims to expand to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia (TechCrunch).

• The team at Flagship Advisory analysed the adoption of SoftPOS by European Saas companies, which converts existing smartphones or tablets at the cashier into a payment acceptance device. They are bullish but slow to market (Flagship Advisory).

• The US-based Embedded Payroll provider Salsa lands $20 million in funding (Finextra). An Embedded Payroll provider enables other companies, such as HR software providers, to offer payroll services to their business customers.

Event Calendar

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

• May 21st, Zurich: Embedded Finance Event hosted by the newly founded Swiss Embedded Finance Association [Register here]

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