The SaaS industry has seen tremendous growth over the past decade, but the landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. There are over 5,000 SaaS companies in Europe, and the market is expected to reach $95 billion in 2025.
However, growth is no longer as straightforward as before.
In this blog, we take a look at how SaaS companies can stay competitive and innovate by embedding financial services within their offering.
The SaaS growth plateau: Why core product innovation alone isn't enough
The rapid growth of the SaaS industry has led to increased competition, making it challenging for companies to sustain momentum through product innovation alone.
Many SaaS platforms face rising customer acquisition costs (CAC), with the average CAC for B2B SaaS companies increasing by over 50% in the past five years.
Customer retention has become more difficult, with organisations now utilising an average of 112 SaaS applications. This contributes to "subscription fatigue," where users become overwhelmed by the number of services they subscribe to, leading to higher churn rates as they seek to consolidate their digital tools.
The SaaS companies that are outperforming the competition are no longer just software providers - they’re becoming financial ecosystems. This shift, known as “financialised SaaS,” involves embedding financial products such as e-money accounts, card issuing, payment processing, and even gift cards directly within SaaS platforms. This strategy doesn’t just enhance the user experience - it creates new revenue streams, improves retention, and strengthens customer loyalty.
Discover more about financialised SaaS 
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The revenue goldmine: How SaaS companies can win with embedded finance
E-money accounts
For many SaaS platforms dedicated to offering accounting, invoicing, and business management products, payments-related activities are at the core of these software. SaaS companies can act as financial hubs by embedding e-money accounts into their core offering, providing even more value to their users.
Benefits for SaaS companies:
✔ Increased user engagement: Customers who manage their funds within a SaaS platform interact with it more frequently, reducing churn.
✔ New revenue streams: SaaS platforms can earn from transaction fees, balance transfers, and currency conversions.
How Edenred Payment Solutions can help:
🔹 We can issue secure and compliant UK accounts that enable you to load funds simply and easily.
🔹 For EU customers, we can issue e-money accounts equipped with IBAN.
🔹 The Confirmation of Payee feature for UK-based payments reduces fraud by ensuring payments reach the intended recipient.
Card issuing
Prepaid, debit, and credit cards have become an essential tool for businesses looking to streamline expenses, control spending, and simplify financial operations. SaaS platforms can leverage card issuing to offer their users branded payment cards, providing financial flexibility.
Additionally, gift cards represent a lucrative and often overlooked opportunity for SaaS platforms. The European gift card market is expected to reach $91.7 billion by 2028. By offering branded gift cards, SaaS companies can boost engagement, attract new users, and create additional revenue.
Benefits for SaaS companies:
✔ Enhanced retention: Users who utilise branded cards are more likely to remain loyal to the SaaS provider.
✔ Improved expense management: Virtual cards can be utilised for specific transactions, ensuring greater financial control.
✔ Gift cards for user acquisition: Offering gift cards allows SaaS companies to incentivise referrals and increase customer lifetime value.
How Edenred Payment Solutions can help:
🔹 We can issue prepaid, debit, or credit cards* - in physical or virtual form.
🔹 Virtual cards are instantly generated, giving users immediate access to funds, which is ideal for time-critical payments.
🔹 Virtual cards can be configured to include unique identifiers, reducing the risk of fraud and streamlining business expenses.
🔹 Our physical and virtual cards can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted, offering spending flexibility.
🔹 Cards can be customised with the SaaS’ logo and branding to keep users engaged.
🔹 We can help SaaS platforms to implement gift card schemes that meet their business needs and incentivise users’ engagement for the long-term.
*Edenred Payment Solutions does not offer the credit liquidity.
Want to know more about card issuing? Check this out 👉 
Embedded payments
Many SaaS platforms rely on third-party payment providers, adding friction to the user experience and reducing their control over financial flows. Embedded payments allow SaaS companies to integrate payments directly into their platforms, creating a frictionless experience while unlocking new monetisation opportunities.
A recent report found that SaaS companies that embed payments see 2-5x higher revenue per customer. By keeping transactions within the platform, businesses gain deeper financial insights, can optimise pricing models, and create premium offerings that justify higher subscription fees.
Benefits for SaaS companies:
✔ Frictionless transactions: Users complete payments without leaving the platform, improving engagement.
✔ Data-driven insights: Embedded payments provide access to rich financial data that can be used to optimise product offerings and pricing.
✔ Increased monetisation: Embedded payments enable premium pricing and higher-value subscriptions.
How Edenred Payment Solutions can help:
🔹 Support multi-currency and multi-lingual transactions, making it easy for businesses to make payments in different currencies.*
🔹 Manage bank payment authorisation, clearing, and settlement, reducing operational complexity.
🔹 Provide Delegated Authorisation allowing SaaS platforms to set custom rules for approving or declining transactions.
🔹 Offer advanced fraud prevention tools, with real-time monitoring, to identify suspicious transactions that occur within the Mastercard network and banking flows such as Faster Payments.
🔹 PCI DSS compliant, guaranteeing card payment security.
*Edenred Payment Solutions does not provide FX conversion services.
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In conclusion
The evolution of SaaS is happening now, and embedded finance is at the forefront of this transformation. Companies that integrate financial services into their platforms are unlocking new revenue streams, improving customer retention, and delivering a more seamless user experience.
According to McKinsey, embedded finance is expected to generate over $230 billion in revenue by the end of 2025. Therefore, SaaS businesses that embrace this shift early will gain a competitive edge, increase user loyalty, and position themselves as all-in-one solutions for their customers.
With Edenred Payment Solutions, embedding financial services is simple, scalable, and secure. Our e-money accounts, card issuing, payments processing, and gift card solutions are designed to help SaaS companies grow revenue, enhance engagement, and build long-term customer relationships.
How Is your SaaS platform ready to embrace embedded finance?
Get in touch with our experts and let them help you explore how we can easily integrate one or more financial products within your platform.
