The B2B innovation landscape has never been more exciting than right now. Ongoing technological advances are driving a paradigm shift, allowing B2B firms to streamline and digitize nearly every element of their operations — particularly the workflows and processes surrounding B2B payments. As businesses seek more efficient ways to manage payments and working capital, embedded finance is emerging as a transformative force in B2B commerce. Separately, PYMNTS Intelligence’s “2024-2025 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index,” commissioned by Visa, identified the ways businesses are adopting digital solutions to optimize cash flow and drive growth in a competitive global market. The data indicates that over 80% of chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasurers have utilized working capital solutions, marking a 13% increase year over year

Pipe, a fintech company partnering with software platforms to deliver embedded financial solutions for SMEs, and bank payment company GoCardless today announced a partnership to reshape capital access for UK businesses. Under the partnership, Pipe’s customer-friendly capital offering will be accessible via the GoCardless platform, providing simple and seamless capital access for its UK customer base.*Over the past several months, Pipe successfully conducted a pilot program with GoCardless in the UK, and the two companies have agreed to formalize their partnership to bring Pipe’s customer-friendly capital solutions to the broader UK market.“Our partnership with GoCardless in the UK market marks a significant step forward in our mission to empower small businesses worldwide with the financing and services they need to grow and prosper,” said Luke Voiles, CEO of Pipe. “By combining Pipe’s customer-friendly solution with GoCardless’s extensive reach in the UK market, we’re revolutionizing how small businesses access capital and providing them with the financial tools they need to thrive in today’s dynamic economy.”This collaboration follows the launch of Pipe’s embedded capital offering in the United States in May. GoCardless partnered with Pipe after a comprehensive market evaluation, citing Pipe’s impressive pre-approval rate for merchants and its ability to offer capital without personal guarantees. Pipe’s solution stands out in the market for its fast, easy-to-access financing, which requires no credit checks. Its flexible top-ups provide similar benefits to a line of credit, and the streamlined user experience results in higher sign-up conversion rates

By Luke Voiles, CEO, PipeThere’s no question that small businesses need an easier way to access working capital. It’s crucial for sustainable growth, and provides a buffer against the ups and downs of the business cycle. The question is how to straighten the path to capital access without cutting corners.As the demand for B2B financing increases, the mantra of “move fast and break things” has been both a driving force for innovation and a source of concern for risk and compliance. It’s this dual accountability to both businesses who need capital and the regulators who ensure capital access is safe that creates the challenge.Done wrong, innovation could slam the brakes on business funding and make it even harder to access by making it too risky for the capital markets, or too big a regulatory risk for the originator to take. But done right, technology can meet the needs of the small businesses that drive our economic engine, especially those who struggle with financial access. I believe fintech exists to solve this exact problem.Why Innovation MattersTraditional funding avenues, such as banks and credit unions, come with complex offline processes and a long list of requirements that can be prohibitive for small business owners