Embedded Finance unlock massive opportunity for UK SMEs

By Puja Sharma

Research published by Kriya, the new name for the FinTech platform MarketFinance, shows that the leaders of UK B2B firms do not plan to offer ‘buy now, pay later’ terms on their eCommerce sites for another 3.23 years, despite 92% of them have heard of the term Embedded Finance.

The UK Embedded Finance Index: A snapshot across four B2B sectors reveals the top five benefits reported by surveyed firms to be: improved customer experience (30%), faster new customer onboarding (28%), more efficient internal operations (27%), improved cash flow (27%), and increased sales volume (26%).

Samuel Hunt, co-founder, and CEO of Materials Market said: “We’ve seen significant growth in sales volume and order value since partnering with Kriya to offer credit on our platform. Suppliers like being paid upfront, buyers value being able to pay in installments, and the ability to automate and scale the provision of credit is hugely efficient for our business. The overall experience working with the Kriya team has been great – a true end-to-end partner with us at every step of the journey. We expect the majority of transactions on Materials Market will soon involve this form of payment option.”

One such firm is Materials Market, a platform connecting trade buyers and suppliers in the construction industry to find the best prices and delivery times. In the first month after integrating Kriya Payments, Materials Market saw a 579% increase in trade credit transaction volume and a 186% increase in trade credit order value after two months. The company expects Embedded credit sales to grow to around 50%-60% of total transactions on its platform.

Commenting on the findings of the UK Embedded Finance Index, Kriya’s co-founder and CEO Anil Stocker said: “These findings highlight a worrying lack of urgency among B2B firms to offer flexible finance and payment options like ‘buy now, pay later’ to their customers. These tools are now readily available and can be deployed in a matter of weeks, providing a cost-effective way to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and cash flow.”

Key Highlights

• New Kriya research finds that UK B2B firms with eCommerce operations do not plan to offer  ‘buy now, pay later terms to their customers for another 3 years, despite 92% knowing what Embedded Finance is, and how it helps accelerate their revenues
• With Kriya able to deploy its Payments solution in just 4 weeks, this delay leaves B2B firms at risk of missing out on the opportunity to grow their sales volumes by more than 500% and average order value by nearly 200%
• A snapshot across four B2B sectors reveals the top five benefits reported by surveyed firms to be: improved customer experience (30%), faster new customer onboarding (28%), more efficient internal operations