Platform facilitators—spanning HR tech, payroll, expense management, and a wide array of B2B SaaS tools—are quietly transforming the backbone of modern business operations. As companies expand globally and lean into digital-first experiences, these platforms are increasingly relied upon to manage everything from employee onboarding to cross-border payments and vendor disbursements. But with growth comes complexity, and customer expectations have shifted dramatically.
Business users now demand the same speed, transparency, and personalization they’ve grown accustomed to in consumer fintech. At the same time, platform providers must contend with rising operational costs and the pressure to differentiate in a rapidly maturing market. It’s not enough anymore to offer a slick interface or flexible API.
The platforms leading the way in 2025 will be those that rethink their core value—and increasingly, that means rethinking their approach to payments. Here are 5 ways you can do exactly that in 2025.
Compliance can be a differentiator
For platforms operating across borders or handling sensitive financial data, compliance isn’t a side task—it’s an existential requirement. Regulations like SOC 2, PSD2, and GDPR place increasing pressure on providers to secure, monitor, and audit every financial interaction.
Most compliance work—especially around KYC, AML, and fraud detection—has traditionally been manual and siloed. However, with embedded payment solutions that build these protocols into the infrastructure itself, compliance shifts from a hurdle to an enabler. When due diligence and identity verification happen automatically in the background, platforms can scale faster, serve more users, and move into new markets with confidence.
Disbursements as a strategic advantage
The timing of money movement has garnered much of the spotlight recently, leaving platforms under growing pressure to move money quickly, reliably, and flexibly. This expectation spans use cases from paying out wages and reimbursing expenses to settling with vendors. In short, the disbursement function has become one of the most high-stakes components of the user experience.
Delays and errors can erode trust, especially when those funds are someone’s paycheck or a business-critical supplier payment. Embedded disbursement tools solve this by enabling real-time payouts to bank accounts, prepaid cards, or digital wallets. Platforms that embed these capabilities go beyond meeting expectations to setting a new bar for responsiveness and reliability.
Consider an HR tech platform that integrates real-time wage access. Employees can receive their earnings minutes after a shift ends, directly onto a branded card. The employer benefits from higher retention, while the platform deepens its value proposition and opens new monetization streams via interchange fees. It’s not just about moving money—it’s about creating moments of impact for end users.
Reconciliation & resolution (without headaches)
Behind every disbursement is a trail of data, and reconciling that data across systems has long been a pain point for finance teams. Payroll, expense reports, and vendor payments are often managed separately and involve manual reviews that are time-consuming and prone to error.
Platforms that embed intelligent payment systems can turn reconciliation into a seamless—even automated—process. Platforms can leverage AI to match transactions, flag duplicates, and detect anomalies in real time, reducing risk while freeing up internal resources.
Take a B2B expense platform, for example, that uses embedded payments to issue virtual cards and track spend as it happens. Charges are auto-categorized, receipts are matched on the fly, and suspicious activity is flagged before it becomes a problem. Disputes are handled quickly instead of weeks later. The result is a smarter, more proactive finance workflow that builds trust with users and saves money.
Global reach, local precision
As platform clients expand internationally, their financial operations must scale with them. But cross-border payments come with layers of friction in the form of multiple currencies, fluctuating foreign exchange (FX) rates, and fragmented banking systems.
Embedded payment infrastructure can solve these challenges by offering multi-currency disbursements, real-time foreign exchange, and compliance-ready international transfers—all from within the platform.
A global payroll provider, for instance, can use embedded tools to pay contractors in 50+ countries without requiring clients to open local bank accounts. These capabilities remove logistical barriers and make the platform indispensable as part of a global growth strategy.
From utility to ecosystem
The most forward-thinking platform facilitators aren’t asking how to add payments—they’re asking how to build with them. Payments are no longer just the final step in a process. They’re part of the product and, increasingly, part of the brand.
When done right, embedded payments enhance operational efficiency, elevate the user experience, and open up entirely new revenue opportunities. They allow platforms to move from being functional tools to becoming trusted ecosystems—places where users solve real problems.
Move forward with Marqeta
Is your platform facilitator business ready to unlock the power of embedded payments? Discover how our solutions can help revolutionize operations and delight your customers at every step in their journey.
