UK B2B SMEs missing out on opportunity to use Embedded Finance to grow sales volume and order value more than 5x, despite high levels of awareness

• New Kriya research finds that UK B2B firms with e-commerce operations do not plan to offer  ‘buy now, pay later’ terms to their customers for another 3 years, despite 92% knowing what Embedded Finance is, and how it helps accelerate their revenues
• With Kriya able to deploy its Payments solution in just 4 weeks, this delay leaves B2B firms at risk of missing out on the opportunity to grow their sales volumes by more than 500% and average order value by nearly 200%

London, 4 January, 2023 - Research published for the first time today by Kriya, the new name for fintech platform MarketFinance, shows that the leaders of UK B2B firms do not plan to offer ‘buy now, pay later’ terms on their e-commerce sites for another 3.23 years, despite 92% of them having heard of the term Embedded Finance. 

With Kriya able to deploy its Payments solution in just 4 weeks, this means that businesses are missing out on a host of key benefits that their peers that have already moved ahead are experiencing. The UK Embedded Finance Index: A snapshot across four B2B sectors reveals the top five benefits reported by surveyed firms to be: improved customer experience (30%), faster new customer onboarding (28%), more efficient internal operations (27%), improved cash flow (27%), and increased sales volume (26%).

One such firm is Materials Market, a platform connecting trade buyers and suppliers in the construction industry to find the best prices and delivery times. In the first month after integrating Kriya Payments, Materials Market saw a a 579% increase in trade credit transaction volume and a 186% increase in trade credit order value after two months. The company expects Embedded credit sales to grow to around 50%-60% of total transactions on its platform.

Samuel Hunt, co-founder and CEO of Materials Market said: “We’ve seen significant growth in sales volume and order value since partnering with Kriya to offer credit on our platform. Suppliers like being paid up front, buyers value being able to pay in instalments, and the ability to automate and scale the provision of credit is hugely efficient for our business. The overall experience working with the Kriya team has been great - a true end-to-end partner with us every step of the journey. We expect the majority of transactions on Materials Market will soon involve this form of payment option.” 

‍Commenting on the findings of the UK Embedded Finance Index, Kriya’s co-founder and CEO Anil Stocker said: “These findings highlight a worrying lack of urgency among B2B firms to offer flexible finance and payment options like ‘buy now, pay later’ to their customers. These tools are now readily available and can be deployed in a matter of weeks, providing a cost-effective way to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and cash flow.”

Notes for Editors

Kriya commissioned the independent market research company Opinion Matters to survey 250 c-suite executives at UK B2B firms with e-commerce operations employing up to 500 people, about their current economic concerns, and awareness of Embedded Finance. The respondents spanned four industry sectors: retail; food and beverage; IT and construction, with at least 50 respondents from each sector. Fieldwork took place between 1 and 7 November 2022.

About Kriya

Kriya is the new name for MarketFinance. We are a fintech platform that keeps business flowing brilliantly by providing frictionless access to payments, credit and working capital through seamless integrations and instant credit decisions.

Founded in 2011 and now operating in the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium, Kriya has helped businesses collect over £20 billion in B2B payments, and advanced over £3 billion worth of credit through working capital and business loans.

Kriya has a wide-reaching network of strategic distribution partners including Barclays Bank UK PLC, and is backed by a prestigious array of equity investors including Northzone, Barclays Bank UK PLC and Mouro Capital (owned by Santander Bank).

For further information, please contact Dan Purvis, VP Marketing, d.purvis@kriya.co or via +447801424454.