The platforms winning on embedded payments are winning on clarity:
about what their customers need, how to sell it, and what to build next.
That's the crux of this guide. The infrastructure barrier is gone. Any serious vertical software platform can access the tools that once required a bank charter or a decade of engineering investment.
The 40% adoption gap isn't a product problem. It's a GTM problem. And it's closeable. Not all at once, but systematically.
Then, expansion into embedded finance is the logical next step. The data, the trust, and the customer relationships that come from proven payments execution are exactly what make capital products, business accounts, and issuing viable.
Payments are where you start. Not where you stop.
What high-adoption platforms do differently
Leaders
Treat payments as a core revenue line
Build continuous customer intelligence loops
Invest in cross-functional commercial readiness
Define adoption success precisely
Expand into financial products sequentially
Followers
Treat payments as a feature
Rely on assumptions
Silo payments in product
Measure at signature or KYC
Rush embedded finance before payments are proven
Your next steps
You don't need to act on everything in this guide at once. Start here:
Run the continuous intelligence loop.
Map current messaging against the needs-to-benefits framework in Chapter 1.
Audit your onboarding process against the five-step framework in Chapter 2.
Choose the right pricing structure with help from the framework in Chapter 3.
Appendix
Adyen
Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) is the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies. By providing end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution, Adyen helps businesses achieve their ambitions faster. With offices around the world, Adyen works with the likes of Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.
Scope
This report explores strategies for vertical software platforms ready to monetise their embedded payments offerings with SMBs. It assumes readers are already familiar with the value of embedded payments, instead exploring the current behaviours, opportunities, and satisfaction with embedded payments, as reported by SMBs in the survey conducted by BCG. It presents actions readers may take to enrich their go-to-market strategy with embedded payments, while the research provides a global view of the SMB landscape, with regional deep dives into the UK.
Methodology
The insights reflected in this report were gained through a 2024 regional SMB survey with 1,700 total respondents across the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia. SMBs were asked about their platform preferences and embedded payments needs. We investigated SMBs’ current adoption and future interest in these offerings and performed a deep dive on key features across verticals and segments.
In addition, we conducted five interviews with leading platforms in North America to understand their embedded payments strategy, revenue model, and the needs they observe from their SMB users. Those qualitative insights are complemented by findings from our Embedded Finance Report, which also features original survey data from BCG and Adyen.
This report also includes quotes from: Toast, Fresha, Teamfront, ModMed, RMS, Epos Now, ROLLER, Zenoti, Rectangle Health, Procore, and Bessemer Venture Partners.