BT Group
“Can BT Group leverage its ubiquitous UK network and retail footprint to become a trusted embedded financial services gateway for British SMBs?”
Founded1846
HQLondon, United Kingdom
IndustryVertical SaaS / Telecommunications
The story
BT Group began as a telegraph company in 1846 and evolved into the UK's largest fixed-line and mobile telecommunications provider. The acquisition of EE in 2015 added the UK's largest mobile network. In recent years, BT has been experimenting with embedded finance through its incubation arm Etc., launching the BT Tap to Pay app powered by Adyen to offer payment acceptance to small businesses — signalling an ambition to become a financial services conduit for UK SMBs on top of its connectivity infrastructure.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
1846
Founded as the Electric Telegraph Company, the world's oldest telecommunications company.· pivot
1991
British Telecom rebranded to BT and expanded internationally through strategic alliances.· pivot
2015
BT acquired EE, the UK's largest mobile network operator, expanding into 4G mobile and fixed broadband.· acquisition
2024
BT Group's incubation arm Etc. partnered with Adyen to launch BT Tap to Pay on iPhone for small business payment acceptance.· banking
The stack
2 layers disclosed in BT Group’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
KYC
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.