Payments glossary
Embedded finance
Embedded finance is financial services built into non-financial software - payments, lending, insurance or accounts offered inside a marketplace, SaaS platform or app - so customers transact where they already are, while a regulated provider runs the rails behind the scenes.
What embedded finance looks like
A salon booking platform that takes the deposit at the moment of booking. A marketplace that pays sellers out automatically after delivery. Accounting software that offers finance against unpaid invoices. In each case the software company owns the customer experience and the financial service is woven into it - the customer never visits a bank or a payment provider's site, but a licensed institution is doing the regulated work underneath.
Embedded payments: the usual starting point
Payments are where most platforms begin, because the demand is built in: their users already need to get paid. The platform onboards its merchants, embeds checkout and payouts in its own product, and earns a share of the payment economics. The regulated machinery - KYC on each sub-merchant, processing, settlement, disputes - has to live somewhere, and that is the central design decision: become a payment facilitator and carry that burden in-house, or partner with a payment service provider that carries it for you.
The build-versus-partner question
Becoming a facilitator brings control and margin, but also compliance obligations, fraud losses and scheme oversight. Most platforms start by partnering: the provider handles onboarding, processing and settlement while the platform keeps the experience. LekkaPay works with platforms on exactly this model, providing the regulated payment layer beneath the platform's own product.
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