58% of SMBs Turn to Embedded Finance for Cash Flow Management

For years, embedded finance was shorthand for retail convenience. It included buy now, pay later buttons, one-click checkouts and rideshare wallets.

This year marks a turning point, however. The same technology stack that made consumer payments invisible is now redrawing how businesses fund, transact and grow.

Embedded B2B finance isn’t just about convenience; it’s about control.

As macro pressures bite, chief financial officers are treating financial rails as strategic infrastructure, not add-ons. Platforms that embed credit, virtual cards and automated workflows are recasting finance as a core operating system, one that dictates speed, liquidity and customer loyalty.

The shift anchors “The Next Frontier: Why Embedded B2B Finance Is Breaking Out in 2025,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report produced in collaboration with Galileo.

The report finds that the same frictionless integrations that once defined consumer payments now underpin a broader transformation in B2B commerce, with embedded tools becoming as fundamental as the ERP or CRM systems they plug into.

Embedded B2B finance is moving from experiment to essential, propelled by tightening liquidity, advances in API and cloud integration, and the rise of digital issuance as a default expectation across enterprise platforms.

Key findings include:

Inflation is the top financial challenge for 58% of small businesses, heightening demand for embedded credit and working capital tools that can accelerate cash conversion and reduce reliance on traditional lenders.

The embedded B2B finance market is projected to quadruple from $4.1 trillion today to $15.6 trillion by 2030, reflecting how financial functionality is becoming native to software rather than external to it.

Digital issuance, or the ability to create and control virtual cards in real time, has become a competitive baseline. The edge in B2B no longer lies in lending rates but in speed and integration depth.

This shift is changing how platforms think about growth. Where consumer embedded finance centered on checkout convenience, B2B players see financial orchestration as a revenue engine. Embedding payments into accounting and procurement software eliminates manual reconciliation and creates sticky, recurring income.

For providers like Zuora, Nuvei and Stripe, the payoff is not just faster payments but deeper entrenchment within enterprise workflows.

Yet the road to scale is steeper than in retail. The report reveals that B2B adoption faces higher compliance barriers, heavier transaction values and outdated infrastructure.

Many firms still rely on paper invoices or legacy ERP systems, making modernization urgent and difficult. Successful platforms will need API-first partners capable of navigating multi-jurisdictional regulations while maintaining speed and data integrity.

Other findings reinforce that embedded finance is becoming foundational to enterprise commerce. Law firm software provider Centerbase now embeds Stripe payments directly into client billing. Toast offers restaurant merchants real-time advances through its point-of-sale system. FreshBooks integrates revenue-based financing from YouLend. Each example points to the same endgame of turning embedded finance into the invisible plumbing of business liquidity.

The report concludes that B2B’s breakout moment isn’t about replicating retail’s convenience. It’s about redesigning how firms access capital and move money in real time. Those that seize the opportunity will define the infrastructure behind the next decade of digital commerce.