Payhawk
Also a provider — view Payhawk’s profile →“Can a spend management platform become its own regulated bank by stacking EMI licenses and Visa Principal Membership, eliminating BaaS middlemen?”
Founded2018
HQLondon, United Kingdom
IndustryHorizontal SaaS / Spend Management
The story
Payhawk launched as a spend management platform unifying corporate cards, expenses, and accounts payable. The strategic pivot has been vertical integration of the financial stack: securing its own EMI licenses in Lithuania (2023) and the UK (2024), becoming a Visa Principal Member to issue cards directly without a BIN sponsor, and building in-house credit lines. This moves Payhawk from being a software layer on top of third-party BaaS to operating as its own regulated e-money institution.
Last 12 months
—
Product timeline
2023
Granted Electronic Money Institution license by Bank of Lithuania (July 11, 2023).· banking
2023
Partnered with Yapily to enable open banking bank account top-ups across Europe and UK.· banking
2023
Launched emergency Visa credit card line with zero-interest rate for US and UK customers during SVB crisis.· lending
2024
Granted EMI license by UK FCA (January 13, 2024) to operate on UK market.· banking
2024
Discontinued AIG-backed travel insurance on EEA-issued Visa cards (effective October 1, 2024).· pivot
Regulated entities
3
regulatory licences held by Payhawk
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
8 layers disclosed in Payhawk’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Payhawk Payment Services (in-house EMI)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
19 more providers across 7 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.