Digital Wallets Thriving, Proliferating in All Directions
Not long ago pundits in Western markets questioned the prospects of digital wallets; though admittedly, wallets in Western markets had many false starts (MCX/CurrentC, Isis/Softcard, V.me, Google Wallet, and numerous other failed telco, merchant, or bank coalitions). There is no longer any basis to question the massive influence and potential of digital wallets, which we […]
Infographic: Fiserv 2022 Results – Solid Growth, Profitability, and Merchant Performance
General Observations FIS recently announced plans to divest Worldpay. In contrast, Fiserv’s acquisition of First Data appears to be performing well based on our review of Fiserv’s 2022 results: Fiserv 2022 Performance Highlights Solid topline and bottom line (EBITDA) growth performance in 2022. Performance outshined FIS, but was matched (slightly exceeded) by peer Global Payments. […]
Peeling Back the Onion of Embedded Finance
Fintech is full of acronyms and catch phrases, none more used and yet more confusing than ‘embedded finance’. Everyone seems to have a different definition and understanding of embedded finance. To some, it is something specific, to others, it effectively encompasses all fintech. We can all agree, however, that fintechs that master embedded finance as […]
Framing the Fintech Geo Expansion Opportunity in the US-Europe Corridor
US-to-Europe and Europe-to-US are popular corridors for fintechs seeking to expand geographically due to the huge size of the markets, regulatory uniformity with the region, cultural similarities, and market maturity levels. Roughly half of the top 50 European fintechs have expanded to the US, and Europe is typically the first stop for U.S. fintechs looking […]
Thoma Bravo’s Acquisition of Coupa Highlights the Value of B2B SaaS and Embedded Payments
Image credits: Freepik Thoma Bravo continues to demonstrate an eagerness to invest in B2B SaaS and payments. On December 12, 2022, Thoma Bravo announced the acquisition of Coupa Software for $8 billion with the intention of taking the company private. Earlier last year, Thoma Bravo completed the acquisition of Bottomline Technologies for $2.6 billion. Both […]
The Massive B2B X-Border Fintech Opportunity, 2023
The B2B X-Border payments fintech opportunity is massive. Fintechs continue to win share from banks by differentiating on technology and product. Fintechs with strong GTM focus on B2B SaaS integrations and collaborations will clearly emerge as winners. In this article, we analyze this space and present our key takeaways. We advise downloading the slides […]
Scope and Scale of the Apple Fintech Ecosystem
Apple effectively discloses no data on its fintech business, forcing us to speculate on the size and substance of this franchise. There are plenty of wacky numbers floating around as to Apple’s scale in fintech, including one widely quoted data point that Apple processes $6 trillion of payments volume annually (claiming to be more than […]
Our Most Read Insights of 2022: Debate About the Impact of BaaS, Open Banking Payments, and SoftPOS
Flagship published insights across a diverse set of topics in 2022, including integrated payments, crypto, open banking, payfacs, M&A, neobanks, SoftPOS, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), the impact of inflation, B2B payments, spend management, and many others. Below we review and summarize our most popular articles of the past year. The rise of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), in parallel with […]
SoftPOS is Ready for Prime Time in 2023
SoftPOS, otherwise known as ‘tap to pay’ or ‘pin on glass’ was first conceptualized a decade ago. Since then, SoftPOS progressed slowly but steadily towards mass market readiness, and that time is now, or at least visible on the 2023 horizon. Several key events in 2022 catalyzed the momentum of SoftPOS, which is now clearly […]
SaaS Providers & Platforms: Navigating the Payment Facilitation Journey and Beyond, 2022
Software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) providers and platforms play an increasingly significant role in the payments ecosystem. Payment facilitation, a term loosely describing how these providers and platforms enable payments for their customers, has several operating models, each with varying levels of control, liability, and revenue opportunity. SaaS providers and platforms should not think of facilitating payments as […]