Banking Features Becoming Distribution Software
Aaron Huang, Head of Commercial at Productfy, on choosing the right fintech customers
The important shift is that banking features are turning into distribution software, not standalone products. For many software companies, a card, account, or faster payout is no longer the business, it is a way to keep users inside the app, collect more transaction data, and add revenue without asking users to switch financial providers. That is why fintechs and vertical SaaS companies increasingly buy from the same BaaS stack and follow the same expand from debit into credit and lending playbook.
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The user workflow is often identical across both groups. A barber app like Squire can issue a card so barbers get paid the moment a haircut closes out, while a fintech offering earned wage access uses nearly the same account, card, and payout rails. The logo changes more than the underlying product stack.
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This is why the go to market starts to look like SaaS. Non financial software companies usually do not need a unique banking product, they need a reliable package of ledgering, compliance, cards, and money movement that can be turned on quickly, priced simply, and expanded over time into secured credit, unsecured credit, or vendor finance.
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The economic profile also changes. Pure fintech customers tend to push volume fastest because interchange is core revenue, creating breakout winners and concentration risk. Embedded finance customers are usually smaller and more numerous, because they use financial features to improve retention and workflow, which makes the customer base look more like a broad SaaS portfolio.
Going forward, the winners in BaaS are likely to look less like niche fintech vendors and more like horizontal infrastructure for any software company with a payments moment, payout flow, or lending wedge. As more vertical SaaS products add embedded accounts, cards, and credit, the line between fintech and non fintech should keep fading, and upsell paths into lending should become the biggest revenue unlock.