Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.

This week, Andreas Munk Holm is joined by Max Schertel, co-founder & CEO of finmid, and Tim Rehder, General Partner at Earlybird, to unpack the rise of embedded lending infrastructure for B2B platforms.

From food delivery and PSPs to ride-hailing and fleet platforms, finmid lets marketplaces offer financing directly to their merchants – with a single integration, across 30+ European markets. Together, they break down why embedded lending is often new capital, not just smoother UX; how better data lets you underwrite the “invisible” SME segment; and what it really takes to scale regulated infra across a fragmented Europe.

Here’s what’s covered:

01:03 – What finmid does: One integration for platforms to offer any financing product to business users across Europe
02:02 – Why embedded wins: Tim on data access, risk scoring, and turning platforms into “banks in all but the balance sheet”
04:05 – Owning infra, not capital: Regulation, operations and data engine vs outsourcing pure funding to institutions
06:43 – Economics & margins: Market size, 60%+ gross margins, and why net income beats headline spread
10:47 – Customer examples: How Wolt Cash works, proactive offers in the merchant dashboard, and +80% retention uplift
12:32 – Impact on the market: New capital for underserved SMEs vs just smoothing the bank journey
17:57 – Ticket sizes & duration: Typical loans of €10–20k, up to ~12 months, 85% renewal and the path to larger, longer credit
21:15 – AI & risk: Using generative and agentic AI in ops (adverse media) and data science (millions of data points, daily model iteration)
29:20 – Scaling to 30 countries: U27 + UK, CH, IS – regulation, payments rails and why “ugly detail work” is the real moat
40:17 – Partner alignment: Making financing core to platform metrics (GMV & retention) and hard-won lessons on incentives

E684 | Max Schertel, finmid & Tim Rehder, Earlybird: Powering European SMBs with the cash they need

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