Most startups building embedded banking follow a familiar path: pick a Banking-as-a-Service provider, integrate their APIs, and build a custom front end. But NoCFO, an AI-powered accounting platform, took a different approach. Instead of building banking from the ground up, they partnered with Holvi, a neobank targeting the same customers, and white-labeled the entire banking product.

In this episode of the Embedded Finance Review Podcast, I’m joined by Teemu Karuluoto, founder and CEO of NoCFO. We dive into:

• Why partnering with a neobank made more sense than going the BaaS route
• How ICP alignment shaped their partnership decision
• What it’s like to integrate banking when you don’t have the resources to build everything yourself
• The trade-offs between open banking and direct integration
• NoCFO’s plans to expand this model to Germany

If you’re interested in the strategic decisions behind embedded banking or how to create a seamless experience for your customers, this episode is for you.

This episode was produced by Orama.tv.

(00:00) Start(01:43) Introduction and Greetings(02:26) Introduction to Digital Accounting and Embedded Banking(02:49) Overview of NoCFO(03:58) How NoCFO Works(05:48) AI Integration in NoCFO(06:54) Founding Story of NoCFO(10:05) Partnership with Holvi and Embedded Banking(25:15) Future Plans and Expansion(28:55) Final Thoughts and Advice

What happens when embedded lending evolves from a nice-to-have experiment to a must-have competitive advantage?

In this episode, I speak with Jens Roehrborn, co-founder of Banxware, a German embedded lending provider. Over the past six years, Jens has witnessed platforms transform their financing approaches for SME customers. E-commerce sites, neobanks, and accounting software have all embraced embedded lending.

We dive deep into Banxware's strategic shift from direct lender to what Jens calls a "lending enabler." It's an orchestration layer that connects platforms with multiple funding sources, including traditional banks such as UniCredit's German subsidiary.

In this episode, we explore:

How this model serves over 2 million SMEs across more than 40 platform integrations

Why traditional banks are now eager to participate in embedded lending

The challenge of serving both high-risk small businesses and price-sensitive larger merchants

How Banxware reduced UniCredit's credit decision process to a maximum of three days

Jens' prediction that embedded finance will become as essential as online payments for platform competitiveness

Connect with Jens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensroehrborn/

About Embedded Finance Review: Weekly newsletters, bi-weekly podcasts, and industry events exploring embedded finance in Europe. Visit www.embeddedfinancereview.com

This episode was produced by Orama.tv.(00:00) Start

(01:42) Introduction and Greetings

(02:10) Current State of Embedded Lending in Europe

(02:31) Industries Adopting Embedded Lending

(05:00) The Shift in Banks' Strategy

(05:39) Evolution of Embedded Finance

(06:01) Challenges and Solutions in Embedded Lending

(07:58) Partnership with UniCredit

(09:02) Orchestration Layer Explained

(19:26) Impact on SME Borrowers

(24:12) Platform and Bank Collaboration

(29:29) Future of Embedded Lending

(32:15) Conclusion and Contact Information

Hope is not a strategy. That's a line from today's episode that stuck with me. Because in embedded finance, too many partnerships are built on hope: hope that customers will come or hope that the product will fit. But the companies that actually succeed? They do the work upfront.

Today I'm joined by Jas Shah, a fintech product consultant who has worked on both sides of embedded finance: from inside big banks like Citibank to advising fintechs on becoming "embedded ready."

In this conversation, we explore:

• What separates successful embedded finance partnerships from the ones that never take off
• Why the customer so often gets forgotten in bank-fintech deals
• How to test your embedded strategy before going all-in (hint: start with referrals)
• What "embedded ready" actually means for fintechs looking to partner with platforms
• Why ICP alignment matters more than brand names
• How agentic finance will transform SME lending by replacing brokers with AI agents
• Why accounting software providers might be the biggest winners in agentic finance

Connect with Jas on LinkedIn and check out his newsletter.

About Embedded Finance Review: Weekly newsletters, bi-weekly podcasts, and industry events exploring embedded finance in Europe.

This episode was produced by Orama.tv.

(00:00) Start(01:26) Introduction and Greetings(01:59) Diving into Embedded Finance(02:30) Klarna: A Case Study(03:55) Challenges in Embedded Finance(08:31) Customer Research and Market Testing(12:20) Finding the Right Partnerships(19:01) Getting FinTechs Embedded Ready(20:33) API Strategy and Technological Readiness(27:20) Agentic Finance: The Future of Financial Decisions(30:14) Practical Applications of Agentic Finance(35:00) Conclusion and Contact Information