Mcdonalds
“Can McDonald's unify its payment, loyalty, and digital ordering infrastructure across 40,000+ global franchise locations on a single embedded finance stack?”
Founded1940
HQ110 North Carpenter Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607
FoundersRichard McDonald, Maurice McDonald
IndustryVertical SaaS / Restaurants
The story
McDonald's began as a single California burger stand in 1940 before Ray Kroc franchised the concept nationally through the 1950s–60s, creating the world's largest quick-service restaurant network. The company generates revenue through a mix of company-owned restaurants, franchise royalties, and licensing. On the embedded finance front, McDonald's has progressively consolidated payments infrastructure around Adyen across 60+ global markets, with the partnership expanding to the US mobile app in 2024, signalling a push toward a unified global payment stack.
Product timeline
1940
Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California.· pivot
1954
Ray Kroc becomes a franchising agent for McDonald's and begins expanding the franchise model nationally.· pivot
1965
McDonald's Corporation goes public on the New York Stock Exchange.· ipo
2019
McDonald's begins its global payments partnership with Adyen, initially covering multiple international markets.· banking
2024
McDonald's expands its Adyen mobile app payment partnership to the United States.· banking
The stack
Payments / PSP
Lending
Accounting gap: none