If you run a software platform that serves small or mid-sized businesses, your users are probably managing payments somewhere else. They’re logging into a separate banking app, reconciling expenses in a spreadsheet, or dealing with multiple providers to handle what should be a single workflow. The tools you’ve built handle everything else, but the money still moves somewhere outside your product.
That’s a problem, and increasingly, it’s also a missed opportunity.
The Market Has Already Shifted
According to a recent Oliver Wyman survey, roughly 46% of European SMEs already use some form of embedded finance. More telling, 69% say they’re interested, and 79% consider embedded financial features a key criterion when choosing software.
Separately, Juniper Researchprojects that the total value of virtual card transactions will grow 235% by 2029, rising from $5.2 trillion in 2025. So the demand is there. It’s already shaping how SMEs evaluate and choose the software they work with daily.
The message is straightforward: businesses want fewer providers, less friction, and financial tools that sit inside the systems they already use. They don’t want to leave your platform to make a payment or check a balance. They want it all in one place.
What This Means for Software Platforms
For independent software vendors – ISVs, or more plainly, companies that build software for other businesses – the embedded finance opportunity goes beyond convenience. It fundamentally changes the economics of a software business.
When a platform embeds payments or card issuing into its product, three things happen.
First, there’s a new revenue line. Every time a user makes a transaction through a card issued under your platform, you earn a share of the interchange fee – in most cases, up to 50% of the interchange revenue. It’s a recurring, usage-based income that scales with your customer base.
Second, retention improves. A platform that handles a business’s daily transactions is significantly harder to leave than one that only handles, say, project management or invoicing. Financial features create daily touchpoints that non-financial features simply can’t match.
Third, you unlock data. Spending data – where money goes, how often, in what categories – is something no standalone software feature can generate. It enables smarter product development, more relevant upselling, and a much deeper understanding of how your users actually operate.
The Split Model
The good news is that software platforms don’t need to become banks or obtain financial licences to offer these services. The embedded finance model that’s gaining traction in Europe works on a split: the software vendor owns the user experience and the brand, while a licensed partner handles the regulated infrastructure behind the scenes.
This means you can offer payments, branded cards, real-time spend tracking, and transaction controls under your own brand – without touching compliance, settlement, or card scheme relationships directly.
Your users see your product. They use your interface. The cards carry your brand. But the regulated plumbing – issuing, processing, KYC, scheme compliance – is handled by a partner built specifically for that purpose.
Why It Works for SMEs
From the SME’s perspective, the appeal is simple. Instead of managing three or four separate tools for accounting, payments, expenses, and banking, they get a single platform that does it all. In other words, less admin, fewer logins, and better visibility.
And because the financial features are embedded rather than bolted on, they actually work within the existing workflow. There’s no redirect to an external provider. No separate onboarding. No second interface to learn.
This is exactly how Beneflo, a European HR-fintech startup, built its employee benefits platform. Using Wallester’s white-label infrastructure, Beneflo issues branded Visa cards that employees can use across Europe, while employers get real-time controls and customisable spending categories. The whole thing went live without Beneflo needing its own licence or banking partner. The company has since been selected for the Visa Innovation Program Europe.
Similarly, GF Money, a Finnish consumer lending fintech operating across Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain, used Wallester’s white-label infrastructure to deploy a unified virtual card product across all four markets. The company has issued over 27,000 cards to date. AsDavid Öhlund, CEO Scandinavia at GF Money, put it: “Instead of building a product country by country, you start from the technical foundation and scale from there.” Customers can now access a virtual card within five minutes of completing their application, a shift Öhlund described as moving from a simple credit line to a customer-centric experience.
For platforms operating across multiple European markets, the model scales cleanly – same infrastructure, same compliance framework, different geographies.
Wallester White-Label: The Infrastructure Behind the Brand
Wallester White-Label provides the regulated infrastructure that lets software platforms offer financial services without becoming financial institutions.
As a licensed Visa Principal Member, Wallester handles the full card issuing stack – from BIN sponsorship and compliance to processing and settlement. The company currently works with numerous clients across multiple EU markets.
What the platform gets:
- Branded virtual and physical Visa cards (EEA and UK)
- Full BIN sponsorship with real-time card controls
- Mobile wallet support (Apple Pay, Google Pay)
- White-label dashboards, mobile apps, and API access
- User onboarding and KYC handled in-platform
- Multi-currency support and interchange revenue sharing
- Go-live in 8 to 12 weeks
The platform keeps full control over the brand, the user experience, and the commercial model. Wallester handles the complexity – licensing, scheme compliance, and processing – behind the scenes.
Where This Is Going
As SMEs increasingly expect financial features to be part of the software they already use, platforms that don’t offer them risk losing ground to those that do. Not because of price or features alone, but because the daily transaction relationship is the hardest moat to cross.
For software platforms considering the move, the infrastructure is already built, tested, and licensed. All that remains is the decision.
