By Philipp Buschmann, co-founder and CEO of AAZZUR
Payouts are the silent engine behind every transaction-driven business. Whether it’s a marketplace disbursing earnings to sellers, a gig platform paying workers, or a rewards program issuing incentives, getting money into users’ hands efficiently matters. Yet, the reality for many companies is a slow, clunky process involving third-party payment processors, manual bank file uploads, and reconciliation nightmares. Embedded finance is quietly fixing that.
By integrating financial services directly into software platforms, companies now control the payout experience end-to-end. Instead of outsourcing to banks or old-school payment providers, businesses are becoming the bank, or at least, they look like it to the user. This shift is turning finance from a back-office headache into a strategic tool.
The Old Way: Fragmented and Frustrating
Picture a digital marketplace paying out earnings to thousands of sellers. Traditionally, this means exporting payout data, logging into a bank portal or external processor, uploading files, and waiting days for the money to arrive. If there’s an error, wrong account number, or insufficient funds, the process grinds to a halt. Support teams scramble to trace the issue, while the end user grows frustrated.
Adding cross-border payments multiplies the complexity. Local banking rules, currency conversions, SWIFT codes, and compliance checks turn a simple payout into a slow, opaque transaction. The business can’t offer real-time visibility, let alone predictable timelines.
Building Payouts into the Product
Embedded finance changes the game by letting companies issue payouts from within their own software, as if they were a bank. APIs from fintech infrastructure providers make it possible to create wallets, onboard payees, and move money seamlessly — all within the business’s platform.
Take a taxi app, for example. Instead of sending drivers their earnings through a separate system, the app can offer an in-app wallet. Drivers get paid instantly when a ride ends. They can transfer funds to a bank, spend directly from the wallet with a linked card, or reinvest earnings into the platform. The entire payout flow happens in real time, and the app owns the user experience.
Deel, a human resources company, embedded cross-border payments and compliance tools (e.g., through partners like Wise) directly into its platform. This resulted in businesses being able to pay international contractors in their local currencies, on time, with tax and compliance handled automatically.
Why It Works Better
The biggest advantage of embedded payouts is control. Businesses don’t have to rely on batch files or bank approval cycles. They can automate workflows, handle exceptions in real time, and give users more transparency.
This control also enables better flexibility. Want to pay out based on thresholds, schedules, or events? Done. Want to support multiple currencies or geographies without rebuilding the backend? Embedded finance platforms make that possible with minimal engineering effort.
Embedded payouts aren’t just faster, they’re smarter. When platforms have access to real-time financial data at the moment of transaction, they can make better calls before the money moves. That means fewer chargebacks, less fraud, and a system people can trust. It’s proactive finance, not patchwork.
Real-World Impact
For a logistics company paying thousands of truck drivers weekly, switching to embedded finance reduced payout time from 3 days to under 10 minutes. Drivers no longer wait for banking hours; they cash out earnings whenever they finish a job, even on weekends.
Even large enterprises are seeing gains. An e-commerce giant embedded treasury services into its seller dashboard, letting merchants manage payouts, set withdrawal rules, and access early payments. Not only did this reduce churn, but it also unlocked a new revenue stream from financial services.
What to Look Forward to
As regulation catches up, more platforms are getting licensed or partnering with embedded finance providers who handle compliance. This opens the door to even more advanced features: revenue-based financing, programmable treasury operations, and integrated tax withholding.
Solaris is an example of a Fintech company that has materialised this solution. They partnered with Finom, who wanted to expand internationally and needed help navigating the regulatory challenges. The collaboration involved them using Solaris’ CRR banking license to offer business bank accounts and Visa debit cards to its customers. As a result, their customers can open a bank account with a German or Italian IBAN (International Bank Account Number).
Conclusion
Payouts may not be flashy, but they’re fundamental. With embedded finance, what was once a tangle of bank files and vendor APIs becomes a seamless part of the product experience. The businesses that adopt this model aren’t just saving money; they’re redefining trust and speed in how money moves. And that’s a real competitive edge.