Embedded Payments Strategy
Decide how your platform should monetize payments
For software companies, payments can be the largest revenue line in the business or a distraction that never pays off. We analyze your customer base, volume, and product, and give you a clear recommendation on referral, ISO, PayFac-as-a-Service, or full PayFac, with the numbers behind it.
Built for every buyer we serve
B2B and vertical SaaS platforms with transactional customers.
Why this costs you money
These are the failure modes we see most often in Payments & Fintech Advisory.
The difference between models is hundreds of basis points of margin and years of operational commitment.
Processor sales teams recommend whatever they sell.
Boards and investors ask about payments attach rate, and most platforms cannot answer.
Everything included, in writing
Scope is written down before work starts, and changed only in writing. Nothing is added or dropped without a written change order.
- 01Customer and volume analysis
- 02Model comparison with five-year revenue and cost projections
- 03Operational and compliance requirements for each path
- 04Written recommendation and roadmap
- 05Board-ready summary
All 5 are written into the scope document before work starts. What you actually need is settled on the call, after the Assess read.
From first call to live
3 phases, each ending in something written. Exact dates are set at the Assess step, once the scope is known.
- 01Phase 01
Week 1 to 2
Data collection and analysis
- 02Phase 02
Week 3
Modeling and recommendation
- 03Phase 03
Week 4
Roadmap and presentation
What makes this different
These are specific to Payments & Fintech Advisory, and they are in the scope document rather than only on this page.
The recommendation follows the numbers
Referral, ISO, PayFac, and BaaS modelled side by side on your own volume and merchant mix, before any partner is named.
Terms read before you sign
Revenue share, interchange, reserves, liability, termination, and data ownership reviewed line by line, not summarised.
A shortlist, not one introduction
Providers matched on vertical acceptance, risk appetite, and API quality, then cut down after technical review and references.
Nothing paid by the partner
We take no fee from anyone we recommend, so the shortlist is a recommendation rather than a sales pipeline.
What clients say
We publish no client names. These describe the shape of real engagements in Payments & Fintech Advisory.
See the engagementsWe had been quoted eighteen months and seven figures to register as a PayFac. Midcore mapped the alternative in two weeks and told us plainly that our volume did not justify it yet. That conversation saved us a year.
Sponsor bank diligence had stalled us twice. Midcore rebuilt the package (policies, flow of funds, program narrative) and we were approved on the next pass.
Our agents were spending half their week on paperwork. The desk took the boarding queue, the disputes, and the residual reconciliation. Same headcount on the sales side, materially more selling.
- Written scopeAgreed before work starts, changed only in writing.
- Reporting from your dataEvery number opens to a record you can check.
- Scoped, logged accessRevocable by you at any time.
What the work looks like
Anonymised engagements from Embedded Payments Strategy and the wider Payments & Fintech Advisory practice.
All case studiesA platform earning a thin referral share on customer processing wanted the margin that sat with its processor, without the registration, capital, and compliance headcount a full PayFac requires.
Field-services SaaS platform A stalled sponsor bank application cleared on the next passTwo diligence cycles had ended without a decision. The product was fine; the package describing it was not.
Embedded banking platform An ISO gave its agents their selling week backAgents were spending roughly half their time on statement analysis, applications, and chasing processors. The fix was not more headcount on the sales side.
Independent sales organizationWritten by people who have done the work
Articles on Embedded Payments Strategy and the wider Payments & Fintech Advisory practice.
All insightsBecoming a processor connected to Visa requires bank-level membership. Almost everyone asking this actually wants one of four other paths.
9 min read Referral, ISO, or PayFac: the decision most platforms get backwardsChoosing between referral, ISO, and PayFac models means hundreds of basis points of margin and years of operational commitment, decided without a sales pitch.
9 min read Agent Agreements: The Clauses That Decide Who Owns the PortfolioAn ISO agent agreement's vesting clause decides who keeps the residuals on paper. State law can decide it differently once termination actually happens.
9 min readStraight answers
The questions that come up on almost every Embedded Payments Strategy call, answered before you have to ask them.
What if we already have a referral deal?
Is this a sales pitch for PFaaS?
How does an engagement start?
What does Embedded Payments Strategy cost?
Can we stop after the Assess?
How long does Embedded Payments Strategy take?
Who actually does the work?
Still not sure Embedded Payments Strategy is what you need?
That is what the Assess is for. Book a 30-minute call and we will tell you which service fits, whether you need one at all, and what the first engagement would cost. We will also tell you when the answer is no.
Ready to talk about Embedded Payments Strategy?
Tell us what is happening. We will tell you whether this service fits, and whether you need it at all.
- 01Within 1 business dayA US-based practice lead replies and books a 30 minute call.
- 02On the callWe map the problem, the volume, the partners, and the constraints.
- 03After the callYou get a written read of one to three pages, yours to keep.
- Handled under NDA
- Written, not a slide deck
- No obligation to continue