Jane Podbelskaya does in North America what I do in Europe. She advises software companies and investors on embedded finance, runs a media platform called Charge Forward, and spends most of her time translating the world of fintech for software executives who know their vertical inside out but have never heard of a payfac or an attach rate.

In this episode, we compare notes across continents. We talk about how VC and PE funds are actually thinking about embedded finance today, six years after Angela Strange said every company will be a fintech company.

We get into why embedded finance is increasingly an antidote to AI disruption rather than a casualty of it, what the data advantage of vertical SaaS really means in practice, and where North America and Europe are at different stages of the same journey.

Jane also shares the framework she uses with software CEOs from day one: how to assess whether embedded finance makes sense for your business, where to start, and how to avoid the most common vendor-selection mistakes.

Connect with Jane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-podbelskaya-841426/

This episode is sponsored by Hopae, the identity infrastructure layer connecting government identity systems worldwide so businesses can verify users across markets through one single API. Check them out at hopae.com.

About Embedded Finance Review: I'm Lars Markull, founder of Embedded Finance Review, a newsletter, podcast, and event series covering the European embedded finance ecosystem. If you're exploring embedded payments, banking, or lending for your platform, I offer free intro calls where I share what I know, give honest feedback, and connect you with providers I trust. Book a call at embeddedfinancereview.com.

This episode was produced by https://orama.tv/

(00:00) Start(02:12) Welcome and Guest Introduction(03:30) Shopify Spark and Fintech Investing(07:25) Why Education Is the Gap(11:03) Beyond Payments More Products(12:11) VC View After the Hype(14:42) Why Investors Care About It(17:40) Building the Product Roadmap(20:58) Vendor Trends Fragmentation(25:07) AI Moat With Embedded Finance(29:08) Europe vs North America Differences(31:00) Framework and Closing Advice