Vertical Finance & Stablecoins

The Next Wave of Embedded Finance

🔁 Intersection of Vertical Finance and Stablecoins

Over the past decade, a quiet revolution has transformed how financial services are delivered: embedded finance. (Not so quiet, considering over $58.4 billion in venture funding poured into the sector over the last 10 years.)

Instead of building all-purpose fintech apps, companies are now creating more tailored financial experiences — directly relevant to their core offering, and often fully embedded. Whether it's a tool for freelancers, a marketplace for digital goods, or a SaaS product for logistics, the financial layer is showing up exactly where users already work and transact.

Here are three examples of this shift:

• Shopify Balance – Rather than sending sellers elsewhere to manage earnings, Shopify launched an integrated account experience with fast payouts and expense tracking inside the platform.
• Uber Wallet – Drivers earn, save, and spend directly from Uber's app — turning ride-sharing into a financial app for gig workers.
• Kajabi Payments – Creators using Kajabi for online courses can get paid through a native checkout and payouts system, eliminating the need for third-party tools.

But until recently, this revolution has largely lived inside the walls of the traditional financial stack — limited by geography, regulation, and integration complexity.

Now, stablecoins unlock the next wave: globally-accessible, programmable, and composable finance — built directly into any vertical product.

Let's unpack the shift.

🧱 Embedded Finance 1.0: Built on Traditional Rails

Embedded Finance 1.0 was about making bank partnerships turnkey. Platforms like Unit productized bank access, compliance workflows, and money movement — so vertical SaaS companies could quickly embed financial services like:

• Expense accounts for freelance platforms and creator tools
• Card issuing for logistics or fleet startups with real-time spend controls
• Lending workflows for CRMs offering working capital to SMBs

But it also came with trade-offs: less flexibility, rigid compliance constraints, and limited global reach.

At the other end of the spectrum, API-only banks like Column provide raw access to bank infrastructure. They're a better fit for teams that want to build their own experience from scratch, control compliance logic, or deeply customize the user experience — but they require fintech-native capabilities to implement and operate.

TL;DR — Unit-style platforms are best for teams who want to move fast with minimal engineering and design effort — but are happy to play within a pre-defined sandbox. Column-style providers give power and flexibility — but assume you're ready to build more of the stack yourself.

⚠️ The Limitations of TradFi Embedded Finance

While Unit.co and similar players have enabled hundreds of vertical fintech launches, they still rely on traditional infrastructure:

• Regional coverage — Most BaaS platforms are tied to U.S. or EU banking partners, limiting global scalability. PwC
• Heavy compliance lift — KYC/AML flows, licensing requirements, and reporting can be complex. Fintech Strategy
• Closed networks — Money doesn't move between apps or platforms easily, hindering interoperability. PwC
• Slow expansion — Launching in new markets often means rebuilding from scratch due to regulatory and infrastructural differences. World Economic Forum

This means that while embedded finance is powerful — it's also bounded by the limits of the existing banking system.

🌍 Stablecoins: Unlocking Embedded Finance for the World

Stablecoins change the game.

They offer a financial primitive — a programmable digital dollar — that can move across wallets, apps, and geographies without needing to rebuild banking partnerships in every market.

What this unlocks:

• Global reach from day one — Send, receive, or store USD across borders without relying on local banks. World Economic Forum
• Truly embedded flows — Enable payouts, rewards, or wallets inside any app — whether it's a learning platform, a telco, or a game. PYMNTS
• Composable infrastructure — Combine custody, compliance, liquidity, and UX however you need — all through APIs. a16z
• Lighter weight go-to-market — No need to wait for card issuance, bank integrations, or SWIFT approval. BVNK & Cebr Report

As Chris Dixon of a16z puts it, stablecoins are having their "WhatsApp moment for money" — turning slow, expensive, and fragmented financial systems into open, instant, and borderless networks.

Where Unit.co brought "embedded finance" to platforms in the U.S., stablecoins bring embedded finance to the rest of the world — and to use cases that traditional banks can't or won't serve.

⚖️ Embedded Finance Models: Choosing the Right Fit

When designing a stablecoin-powered or embedded fintech product, it's essential to separate three key decisions — each one shaping your go-to-market strategy and long-term scalability:

• Experience Architecture: Will your financial services live inside your existing app (Integrated) or launch as a standalone app (Standalone)?
• Branding Strategy: Will you extend your current brand — or create a new brand to unlock future flexibility across ecosystems?
• Authentication & Security: Will you reuse your existing auth system — or build a dedicated authentication flow designed for financial compliance and higher-risk transactions?

These choices are independent of each other — and can be combined based on your product goals, timeline, and target audience.

Let's unpack each:

Bottom line: Fintech infrastructure today is modular by design. You can mix and match branding, hosting, and security choices — based on what gets you to market faster and scales smarter over time.