Every morning, small business owners open their laptops to a familiar headache. Their sales data lives in one system, their customer lists in another, and their marketing campaigns scattered across multiple platforms. To launch even the simplest promotion, they must stitch together emails, social ads, and reports from tools that don’t talk to each other. This complexity doesn’t stop SMBs from investing in marketing – like payments, marketing is not really an optional activity for busine...| Insight - 2023
In just two months, Ramp’s valuation jumped 40% from $16B to $22.5B, a testament to investor confidence in B2B fintech. Ramp’s journey from corporate card challenger to full-stack financial platform illustrates a broader trend: the convergence of spend management, treasury, payables, and embedded finance into unified operating systems.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Corpay agreed to acquire Alpha Group, a specialist in cross-border payments and FX, in a deal valued at $2.2–2.4 billion (£1.6–1.8 billion). The acquisition expands Corpay’s European presence while and reinforcing its position as a global leader in B2B payments. The acquisition is pending regulatory approvals and anticipated to close in Q4 2025.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Ten-plus years since the technology was first created, the question remains: Has SoftPOS truly arrived, or is it still awaiting its breakthrough?| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Joel van Arsdale, Managing Partner at Flagship Advisory Partners, recently sat down with Hemmo Bosscher, SVP, Global Head of Payments at Adyen and Vamshi Reddy, Head of Payments at Zenoti, to discuss how software platforms can effectively sell embedded payments and make them a key part of their growth strategy on Adyen's latest episode of Adyen Presents: Embedded Finance podcast. The episode focuses on how software platforms can succeed with embedded payments and use them as a key strategi...| Insight - 2023
Xero’s $3.1B acquisition of Melio marks a bold move as firms demand seamless, all-in-one platforms. Therefore, software providers are shifting to own the full financial workflow.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
AI is a well-established force of innovation in fraud prevention, the most mature application of AI in fintech. In Part 2 of our AI Impact on Payments and Fintech series, we cover the evolution of fraud prevention and AI's role in addressing this pressing market need.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
On July 1st, 2025, Flagship Advisory Partners co-hosted an event with UBS in London, where Anupam Majumdar, Partner at Flagship, presented on the rising wave of B2B and Office of the CFO SaaS innovation in Europe, highlighting its evolution in relation to the more mature US fintech landscape. We advise viewing the slides via the "PDF" icon button. Some Key Takeaways: B2B payments represent a substantial $135 trillion in volume as of 2023, which is 2.5x larger than the C2B segment. In contrast...| Insight - 2023
Innovation in financial services is at an all-time high and expanding to include an increasingly diverse range of product concepts, company types, and delivery models. Yet one thing remains constant: businesses that store, move, convert, or otherwise handle customer or partner money must keep track of those funds. As they focus on building new products, delivering exceptional customer experiences, and breaking the mold, many underestimate the complexity of fulfilling that core business requir...| Insight - 2023
The SaaS sector is showing early signs of recovery: 9 out of 14 companies tracked have posted positive 3-month returns, a marked improvement from last quarter. Growth persists but at a decelerating pace, indicating emerging caution.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Flagship Advisory Partners insights- articles and resources.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Stablecoins have demonstrated strong momentum, with transaction volumes surging to $5.7 trillion in 2024 and accelerating further with a 66% spike in Q1 2025. Investor interest is growing - evidenced by a recent increase in M&A activity, predominantly driven by strategic buyers rather than financial sponsors. A standout example is Stripe’s landmark $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge, signaling a major strategic shift toward stablecoin-enabled payments. 1. Size & Growth: Stablecoin Transacti...| Insight - 2023
Introduction Software platforms (ISVs or SaaS or SW companies) are rapidly expanding into payments and embedded finance, capturing more and more of the fintech value chain. In the U.S. market, we estimate that ISVs (independent software vendors), in various forms, already control 35% of the SMB merchant payments revenue pool. In response, payments service providers (PSPs) are evolving their strategies, increasingly focused on acquiring commerce software to control the full SMB product bundle.| Insight - 2023
Flagship summarizes what’s happening in payments and fintech and what we believe it means for the future.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The healthcare sector presents a strong opportunity for embedded payments due to its large, stable card volume and growing digital adoption. About 85% of medical providers are now using practice management software. The most mature embedded fintech solutions are e-billing, POS payments, and consumer financing. There is also emerging potential in embedded payouts and business financing.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The issuer processing landscape is evolving rapidly, and success hinges on agility and informed decision-making. In this session, we highlight the trends, data, and strategies driving the future of card issuance. Whether you're scaling a fintech, integrating embedded finance, or leading transformation within a bank, this conversation offers practical, data-driven insights to help you navigate the next phase of growth.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Flagship has analyzed the B2B mobility sector activity levels using press releases of 39 companies from 7 different provider types.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Since its launch by the Brazilian Central Bank in 2020, Pix has been revolutionizing Brazil's payments landscape. Designed as an instant, account-to-account (A2A) transfer system, Pix is continually reducing dependence on traditional payment methods such as cash, boletos, and debit cards.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The $2.2B acquisition of AvidXchange by TPG and Corpay is the latest example of consolidation in B2B fintech and, more specifically, AP Automation. We discuss the deal structure, recent performance of the companies, and deal implications on broader B2B fintech investment.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The European office of CFO SaaS remains a fertile ground for investments and M&A. Rapid market consolidation across CFO SaaS domains, key regulatory mandates (e.g., B2B E-invoicing) and increased adoption of embedded fintech across SaaS domains makes the space an attractive investment hotbed.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Flagship analyses the competitive dynamics between local and global wallets in Europe, examining their respective market share performance, the drivers and barriers to their adoption, and the broader implications for key ecosystem players.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Our latest article explores why European SaaS (software as a service) platforms are excited about SoftPOS, a tap-to-pay innovation that transforms smartphones into contactless terminals, but are still slow to bring it to market. Despite SoftPOS’s promise to simplify tech stacks, cut hardware costs, and elevate in-person payment experiences, only 20% of leading SaaS platforms are actively promoting it today.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the buzz in 2025 and rightfully so. We cover the potential impact of AI on the payments and fintech industry in a multi-part series starting with Part 1, a general introduction to AI, outlining the historical context for AI’s impact on our industry.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Recent public market meltdown of North American B2B payments SaaS & fintechs likely to accelerate a wave of public-to-private M&A (along with other fintech domains). Market fundamentals, growth outlook and opportunity for value creation in the sector remain healthy for the long term.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has introduced Wero, a Pan-European A2A wallet designed to unify and simplify EU payments for consumers and merchants.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
We observe that new client announcements from next-gen issuer processors are focused on fintechs and digital banks, whilst traditional processors remain centered on traditional banks.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
With trillions of dollars up-for-grabs, fintechs that seamlessly integrate into software platforms and enable effective (digital) collaboration between buyers and suppliers are best positioned to win. The Order-to-Cash (O2C) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cycles in B2B commerce are essential to financial health, but are still plagued by inefficiencies, manual processes, and payment delays.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
With trillions of dollars up-for-grabs, fintechs that seamlessly integrate into software platforms and enable effective (digital) collaboration between buyers and suppliers are best positioned to win. The Order-to-Cash (O2C) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cycles in B2B commerce are essential to financial health, but are still plagued by inefficiencies, manual processes, and payment delays.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Local debit schemes (CB, Girocard, Dankort, BankAxept, Bancomat) are on a decline in Europe due to lack of innovation, slow support of digital wallets, limited geo reach, and collaborative shortcomings.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
European regulators have focused on Apple for blocking third-party access to the NFC (‘Near Field Communication’) element in iOS devices| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
We summarize our most read insights of 2024.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Flagship has observed a surge of interest in the B2B mobility space over the past year, driven by several factors: the growing popularity of EVs, the introduction of Visa Fleet 2.0, the lack of product differentiation amongst traditional providers paving the way for new entrants, and the rising adoption of embedded payments in verticalized SaaS and fleet management software.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The newest edition of The Payper's Global Overview of Payment Providers 2024 – Key Players and Trends in B2B/B2C Ecommerce. Read Flagship's introduction to the Evolving World of Payments.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
Visa and MasterCard recently announced a settlement with US merchants on interchange antitrust litigation. Read our review of the substance and implications of this settlement.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
We compare the growth evolution of registered North American and European (including the UK) payment facilitators (payfacs) from 2020 onwards.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com
The European office of CFO SaaS is a new battleground for embedded fintech. Leading SaaS platforms are increasingly embedding fintech solutions with software workflows and creating a winning formula of success.| insights.flagshipadvisorypartners.com