“Can a vertical SaaS platform become the operating and financial system for the ~25,000 independent food distributors underserved by Sysco and US Foods?”
Founded 2019 as an ordering platform for independent food distributors competing against Sysco/US Foods. Expanded from pure ordering into a full operating stack (Storefront, Sales Hub, Order Agent, Marketing Hub) and layered embedded finance via Finance Hub — turning the platform into the AR/collections system for distributors. Payment processing runs through Adyen; the strategy is classic vertical-SaaS-plus-payments, with Finance Hub monetizing the transaction rail on top of the software subscription.
Pepper processes payments through Adyen. Disclosed money-movement rails: ACH.
Pepper uses Plaid for KYC and identity verification.
Pepper connects to bank accounts through Plaid.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Pepper's stack: Payments / PSP (Adyen); Money movement (ACH); Lending (Payment Plans (installment plans for aging AR balances)); Open banking (Plaid); KYC (Plaid).
Pepper was founded by Bowie Cheung, Chetan Narain and Ivana Tesanovic and is founded in 2019, headquartered in New York, New York, United States.
Pepper has raised $96M in total (latest round: Series C, $50M).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Pepper and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.