1. What are the current key trends related to B2B payments?

B2B payments are undergoing a deep transformation, influenced by the acceleration of digitalization, rising user expectations shaped by B2C, and evolving regulatory requirements. This shift is not just technological — it's structural, reshaping the way companies manage financial flows.

We see three major trends:

• Automation and integration: Businesses are embedding payment flows directly into their ERP, procurement, and financial systems to eliminate manual steps, reduce errors, and speed up operations. Payment is no longer an isolated task — it becomes part of a broader, automated workflow.

• Real-time and account-to-account payments: The move towards instant payments helps accelerate cash flow, improve working capital, and enable faster reconciliation—benefiting both payers and recipients.

• Platformization and embedded finance: SaaS platforms, B2B marketplaces, and industry-specific portals are increasingly integrating payment and banking functionalities to offer seamless, end-to-end experiences. This not only simplifies transactions but also reinforces client engagement and loyalty.

These trends are converging towards a shared goal: delivering smarter, contextualized, and frictionless payment experiences — designed around the needs of the business user.

2. From your perspectives, why embedded payments are a catalyst to solve pain points and address many use cases?

Embedded payments address some of the most persistent pain points in B2B transactions: fragmented systems, operational inefficiencies, slow cash movement, and reconciliation complexity.

By integrating payments directly into the tools businesses already use—ERP platforms, procurement systems, SaaS applications, marketplace systems—companies remove friction at critical steps of the user journey. The result is a faster, more intuitive, and more reliable process.

But the impact goes beyond user experience:

• Embedded payments enable new business models: pay-per-use, subscription-based billing, dynamic payouts, revenue sharing—models that were previously difficult to scale.

• They support compliance and transparency, with features like KYC, automated traceability, and invoice matching.

• They reduce time-to-market for launching financial services, thanks to APIs and pre-built capabilities from BaaS platforms like Xpollens.

In essence, embedded payments transform finance from a back-office function into a product feature—and a lever for growth, retention, and differentiation.

3. What types of solutions does Xpollens offer to address these use cases?

At Xpollens, we provide a modular Banking-as-a-Service platform that makes it easy for businesses to integrate payments directly into their products, platforms, or internal tools. Think of it as a set of API-based building blocks that can be assembled to fit a wide range of use cases.

To make this flexibility concrete, we’ve structured our offering around four key solutions:

• Platform and Marketplace Payments: We streamline complex fund flows for platforms and marketplaces. For example, we manage payouts for Leroy Merlin’s (Adeo) marketplace, ensuring that sub-merchants are paid quickly and reliably.

• Advanced Payments for Enterprises: These are programmable payment flows designed to support Finance teams. One use case we’ve enabled: automatically triggering instant payouts of betting winnings — without any manual input from the finance department.

• Banking-as-a-Service: We provide all the components needed to launch a full-fledged payment offer with accounts and cards—ideal for companies looking to embed financial services into their core offering.

• Virtual Cards: We enable highly tailored payment experiences, especially in sectors like insurance and travel. For instance, we can issue virtual Visa cards instantly to reimburse a customer for a hotel night following a cancelled flight — limited to specific merchants and spending rules.

Across all these solutions, our goal is to make payments an accelerator rather than a bottleneck — fully integrated, invisible when needed, and always aligned with the business logic.

4. What do you do in your spare time? What are your hobbies?

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my two sons, who are 11 and 14 years old. They keep me quite busy! I also love walking and cycling, skiing, discovering new countries and cultures, and playing the guitar. I also have a special interest in BD (comics).

5. What book are you reading, or which is one of your favourite books?

The last book I am reading is called "Les Hordes du Contrevent". It is a fascinating novel by Alain Damasio that explores a dystopian world where a group of elite fighters, known as the Hordes, battle their way against relentless winds in search of the mythical source of these winds. The story is beautifully crafted, filled with poetic language and deep philosophical reflections.

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The content of this article does not reflect the official opinion of Edgar, Dunn & Company. The information and views expressed in this publication belong solely to the author(s).