Embedded Lending, Delivered in 90 Days

The Brief

A private equity owned fintech platform, serving thousands of SMBs on its core payments product, wanted to launch embedded lending, giving customers access to working capital directly inside the platform, underwritten using their own transaction data. The mandate from the PE sponsor was clear: ship fast, ship properly, and make it a real growth story ahead of the next portfolio review.

The Challenge

This wasn't a green-field build. The platform needed to layer real-time underwriting, regulatory compliance and risk infrastructure onto a live system already processing millions in daily transaction volume, without disrupting existing customers or slowing the core roadmap. They also needed people who'd genuinely built credit and lending infrastructure before, not generalists figuring it out as they went.

The Approach

We were retained to lead sourcing for a build squad of seven: a Lead Engineer with embedded finance experience, three backend engineers fluent in risk and underwriting systems, a Product Manager who'd shipped lending features before, a Risk and Compliance Lead, and a Data Engineer to build the underwriting pipeline.

We prioritised candidates from adjacent embedded lending and BNPL platforms, people who'd already solved the specific problem of bolting real-time credit onto an existing product. We ran a compressed, structured interview process aligned to the sponsor's timeline, with technical assessments built around real underwriting scenarios rather than generic tests.

Throughout the process we stayed closely aligned with both the platform's leadership and the PE operating partner, so every hiring decision was made against the commercial goal, not just team fit.

The Result

Seven hires. The feature shipped in under four months. Within the first full quarter live, embedded lending was already driving a meaningful lift in engagement and transaction volume, a concrete, board-ready growth story for the sponsor.