When a Shopify merchant receives a notification saying “You’re eligible for a $50,000 business loan, click to accept,” that loan offer did not come from a bank. It came from Shopify Capital, which uses Stripe’s lending infrastructure to evaluate the merchant’s sales data, determine creditworthiness, and fund the loan. The merchant never fills out an application form. They never visit a bank branch. They never submit financial statements. The lending product is embedded directly into the e-commerce platform they already use to run their business. Shopify Capital has disbursed over $5 billion in merchant cash advances and loans since launch. The merchants who accepted those loans did not go looking for financing. The financing came to them, inside a product they were already using.
That is embedded finance: financial products delivered through non-financial platforms at the point where customers need them. According to Grand View Research, the global embedded finance market was valued at $83.32 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $588.49 billion by 2030, growing at a 32.8% CAGR. The growth rate is among the highest of any category in financial services because embedded finance changes not just how financial products are delivered but when and where customers encounter them.
What Embedded Finance Is and Why It Matters
Embedded finance is the integration of financial services (payments, lending, insurance, banking, investments) into non-financial products and platforms. The financial product is not the primary offering. It is a feature within something else.
The Boston Consulting Group projects fintech revenues will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, with embedded finance and digital lending accounting for the largest share of projected growth.
According to CB Insights’ 2024 fintech report, global fintech funding declined 40 percent between 2022 and 2024, pushing the sector toward consolidation and a sharper focus on profitability over growth at all costs.
The concept is not entirely new. Retailers have offered store credit cards for decades. Auto dealers have offered financing at the point of sale since the 1950s. What is new is the infrastructure that makes embedded finance scalable, programmable, and available to any company, not just large retailers with dedicated financial services divisions.
Three technological developments created the conditions for embedded finance to grow at 32.8% annually. First, API-based financial infrastructure from companies like Stripe, Marqeta, and Galileo allows any company to embed payment, lending, and banking capabilities with minimal development effort. Second, cloud-based compliance tools automate the regulatory requirements (KYC, AML, lending disclosures) that previously required specialised legal and compliance teams. Third, AI-powered risk models evaluate creditworthiness and fraud risk in real time, enabling lending and insurance decisions at the speed of an e-commerce transaction.
The result is that financial products can now be delivered at the moment a customer needs them, inside the context where they need them, by companies the customer already trusts. A ride-hailing driver gets an insurance offer inside their driver app. A freelancer gets a tax savings recommendation inside their invoicing software. A SaaS company gets a revenue-based loan offer inside their billing platform. Each of these interactions happens without the customer needing to seek out a separate financial services provider.
Embedded Finance Across Industries
Embedded finance is spreading across virtually every industry. Five sectors show the strongest adoption.
E-commerce and retail. This is the most mature embedded finance category. Shopify offers lending, payment processing, and business banking to its merchants. Amazon provides lending to marketplace sellers using AI models trained on seller performance data. Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay embed buy-now-pay-later options at checkout, turning every e-commerce purchase into a potential lending transaction. The retail sector held the largest embedded finance market share in 2023, according to Grand View Research, because the connection between commerce and payments is the most natural embedding point.
Transportation and logistics. Uber provides its drivers with instant payment through the Uber debit card (issued by Marqeta), insurance products, and vehicle financing. DoorDash offers instant pay to delivery drivers. Convoy, a digital freight network, provides factoring services to trucking companies, advancing payment on invoices so that independent truckers do not need to wait 30 to 90 days for payment. Each of these financial products is delivered within the platform the driver or carrier already uses for their core work.
Software and SaaS. Business software platforms are embedding financial services as a revenue and retention strategy. Toast, the restaurant management platform, offers payment processing, lending, and payroll to its restaurant customers. ServiceTitan, the home services software company, provides financing options that contractors can offer to homeowners at the point of service. Mindbody, the fitness studio management platform, offers payment processing and lending to gym owners. For software companies, embedded finance creates an additional revenue stream while deepening customer dependency on the platform.
Healthcare. CareCredit (owned by Synchrony) has offered healthcare financing for years, but embedded finance is expanding the model. Platforms like Zocdoc and Headway are integrating payment processing and payment plan options directly into appointment booking. Health insurance is being embedded into employer HR platforms and freelancer marketplaces. The healthcare sector is expected to be one of the fastest-growing embedded finance categories as patient financial responsibility increases and healthcare costs require more flexible payment options.
Real estate. Property technology platforms are embedding mortgage pre-qualification, insurance, and payment processing into the home buying and renting process. Zillow offers mortgage rate comparisons. Opendoor integrates title insurance and home warranties into its buying flow. Rent payment platforms like Zego and ResidentPay embed insurance and credit-building products for renters. Each integration removes a step that previously required the consumer to engage a separate financial provider.
The Infrastructure Providers
Embedded finance is enabled by a layer of infrastructure companies that provide the building blocks non-financial companies use to offer financial products.
Stripe provides the broadest embedded finance platform. Stripe Connect enables marketplaces and platforms to process payments for their sellers. Stripe Capital provides lending. Stripe Treasury provides banking (deposit accounts, card issuing). Stripe Identity provides KYC verification. A platform that integrates the full Stripe suite can offer its users payment processing, banking, lending, and identity verification without building any financial infrastructure.
Marqeta provides card issuing infrastructure. When a company wants to create a branded debit or credit card (like Uber’s driver debit card, Cash App’s Cash Card, or Instacart’s shopper card), Marqeta provides the technology to issue the card, process transactions, and manage the card programme. Marqeta processed $204 billion in total volume in 2023.
Unit provides banking-as-a-service that companies embed into their products. Companies using Unit can offer their customers deposit accounts, debit cards, ACH transfers, and wire transfers, all branded as the company’s own product. Unit handles the banking licence, compliance, and regulatory requirements behind the scenes.
Galileo (owned by SoFi) provides payment and financial technology infrastructure used by fintech companies and non-financial companies alike. Chime, Robinhood, and Dave all use Galileo’s platform for card processing and account management.
Why Non-Financial Companies Offer Financial Products
The business case for embedded finance is driven by three economics.
Revenue expansion. Financial products have high margins. A software company that embeds payment processing earns 2% to 3% on every transaction its customers process. A marketplace that offers lending captures interest income. Toast generates approximately 80% of its revenue from embedded financial services (primarily payment processing), not from its restaurant management software. For many platform companies, embedded finance transforms a software subscription business into a financial services business with significantly higher revenue per customer.
Customer retention. Customers who use a platform’s financial products are significantly less likely to churn. A merchant using Shopify for e-commerce, payments, lending, and banking has integrated Shopify into their financial operations. Switching to a competitor means switching not just their storefront but their entire financial stack. The embedded financial products create switching costs that pure software cannot.
Data advantage. When a platform processes its customers’ payments, it gains visibility into their financial health. That data enables better lending decisions (Shopify Capital uses sales data to assess merchant creditworthiness), better product recommendations, and more personalised service. The data from embedded financial products feeds back into the core platform, making the entire product more intelligent.
The $588 Billion Question
Grand View Research’s projection of $588.49 billion by 2030 assumes that embedded finance continues spreading across industries and that the infrastructure providers continue making it easier for non-financial companies to offer financial products. Both assumptions are well-supported by current trends.
The infrastructure is becoming more accessible. Stripe, Marqeta, Unit, and Galileo are all reducing the technical complexity and regulatory burden of embedding financial services. A company that would have needed 18 months and a team of compliance specialists to launch an embedded lending product five years ago can now launch in three months using API-based infrastructure.
Industry adoption is accelerating. Companies that once viewed financial services as outside their scope are now viewing them as a core revenue stream. Salesforce, the CRM platform, has explored embedded payments. Intuit, the accounting software company, offers embedded lending through QuickBooks Capital. Adobe, the design software company, processes payments through Adobe Commerce.
The trajectory points toward a future where every platform that facilitates a transaction, manages a business process, or maintains a customer relationship will also offer financial services. The financial product will be invisible, integrated into the workflow the customer already performs. The plumbing will be provided by fintech infrastructure companies. And the value will be captured by whoever controls the customer relationship at the moment a financial need arises.
