Marketplace payment processing: how to grow faster with financing

Scaling your marketplace is great until the growing pains hit. Suddenly, the payment systems that worked just fine before are causing new headaches. You want to accelerate the flow of money between buyers and sellers, but are hitting bottlenecks you can’t ignore anymore.

The biggest issue you’ll face is that B2B buyers expect 30, 60 and 90 day payment terms, while SMB sellers need cash now. As you scale, the working capital gap between buyers and sellers increasingly becomes an issue. 

When you first launched, your cash flow or a basic Payment Service Provider (PSP) was enough: fast to set up, easy to manage. But as your marketplace adds more users, more volume, and more complexity, that setup starts to buckle. Costs rise, workflows multiply, and the demand for flexible payment options grows louder on both sides of the platform.

At this stage, it’s clear your payment infrastructure needs to evolve. Sellers want to get paid immediately so they can reinvest and grow. Enterprise buyers demand longer terms. Financing is the bridge that aligns those needs and increases transaction volume, but how do you add it into your existing payment system without adding friction or risk?

In this article, we’ll look at:

• 5 ways to improve your marketplace payment processing (and why it starts with financing)
• What are your marketplace’s options for financing?
• Why choose Aria as your marketplace financing solution?
• How Aria helped UrbanChain achieve 10x growth in revenue in just one year

Note: looking to add embedded financing to your B2B marketplace? Learn how Aria can help you by booking a demo.

5 ways to improve your marketplace payment processing (and why it starts with financing)

As your marketplace grows, your payment setup needs to keep up. You want to handle more volume, keep fraud under control, manage costs, and give users the flexibility they expect.

But here’s the thing: you can’t do any of that smoothly if you don’t solve the cash-flow gap between buyers and sellers first.

Why financing needs to come first

Financing is the underlying infrastructure that unlocks all the other optimizations.

• Better PSP fees only matter if sellers stick around. Fast payouts make sellers happy, and when they stay, you finally have the volume to negotiate better rates.
• Process improvements only help if transactions keep flowing. Instant payouts mean sellers can reinvest faster and take on bigger jobs.
• Risk tools only go so far if users don’t trust the platform. Reliable, fast payments reduce churn, frustration, and off-platform deals.

You’ve probably heard this from your team (or straight from your users): waiting to get paid is a massive pain point. Sellers need cash flow. If your platform can’t give it to them, they’ll move to one that can.

That’s where embedded financing changes everything. It pays sellers right away, while buyers still get the 30–60 day terms they’re used to. Sellers get the cash they need to grow, and you get more volume flowing through your marketplace.

Once financing is in place, all the other improvements you make actually have room to perform, including:

1. Consider switching to a PSP that allows you to negotiate fees

Rising transaction volumes naturally make you more aware of how much your PSP fees add up. A flat rate on every payment is easy to manage at the beginning, but over time it can start to feel less aligned with how your business actually operates.

This is often when it makes sense to consider switching to a PSP with more flexible pricing: tiered rates, volume discounts, or fully custom plans. These options can keep costs manageable as you grow and free up more budget for product improvements, marketing, or other initiatives that move the business forward.

2. Pick a PSP that prioritises dedicated support and customisation

As your marketplace grows, the level of support you need from your PSP naturally changes. What worked perfectly in the early days may start to feel limiting once your operations become more complex. 

Many self-service PSPs are fantastic for getting started, but their more hands-on support is often geared toward their biggest enterprise clients, which can leave growing platforms feeling a little underserved.

For example, some PSPs rely heavily on developer-focused documentation and ticket systems. That’s great for technical teams, but when something goes wrong with payments, your users don’t have the time (or interest) to dig into technical guides. They want fast answers, and usually they’ll come straight to you. Without a PSP who can support you in real time, resolving issues quickly becomes difficult, creating friction in the payment experience and, eventually, impacting retention.

As you scale, it makes sense to switch to a PSP that can grow with you. One that offers more tailored support, more flexibility, and the ability to adapt to how your marketplace actually works. 

3. Combat fraud with a more robust and automated KYB/KYC solution

As you speed up payments and increase transaction volume, your exposure to fraud naturally grows. This is because you have less time to identify and catch suspicious activity. 

Manual or fragmented Know Your Customer (KYC) processes can quickly become bottlenecks and blind spots for fraud. Instead of juggling multiple vendors or manually verifying identities, opt for an end-to-end automated KYC/Know Your Business (KYB) solution that can bring everything together in one flow.

By automating aspects like identity data verification, document verification, authentication, ongoing monitoring, and reporting, you can spot risks earlier and act faster. This not only reduces fraud but also keeps you compliant and ensures that trust scales with your growth.

4. Use a payment orchestrator to automate split payments

Manually managing payments, repayments, fees collection, reconciliation and debt collection quickly becomes a major operational burden. These processes slow everything down, introduce unnecessary risk of human error, and drain time and resources that could be spent elsewhere.

A payment orchestrator that automates payment flows changes that, speeding up the process while improving accuracy. You set the rules for how money should be divided, and the system handles the rest. Payments move instantly and accurately between e-wallets or bank accounts, with commissions and fees distributed automatically. 

By not having to split payments manually, you streamline operations, save time and effort, reduce errors, and set your marketplace up for faster, smoother growth without the extra workload.

5. Expand payment methods and geographic coverage

Growth means new users in new places who prefer different ways to pay. If your marketplace only supports a handful of payment methods or currencies, you’re missing out on transactions simply because buyers can’t pay the way they want to. 

For example, if the Netherlands is a key growth market, you want to make sure you have iDEAL as a payment method. Or if Spain is one, you need to have Bizum as a payment option. Similarly, offering digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, credit card and debit card processing, bank transfers, and even PayPal can significantly improve your checkout experience and user experience.

Working with a payment platform or payment gateway that lets you support local payment methods and multi-currency transactions will help you reach new markets faster without reassessing your payment infrastructure each time you expand.

What are your marketplace’s options for financing?

So what options do you have when it comes to offering financing to your suppliers? 

One option is to advance funds yourself, but doing so ties up your working capital and can create cash flow strain. You’ll have less liquidity available for day-to-day operations, growth initiatives, or unexpected expenses.

You’ll also have to deal with the increased risk of fraud and errors because, by paying sellers upfront, you have less time to safeguard against fake accounts, collusion, and incorrect account information.

Your other option is to partner with a third-party financing solution. This approach helps you avoid taking on extra operational or fraud risk. Here are three types of providers you could turn to.

1. PSPs: Varying capabilities with major trade-offs

Your first instinct might be to look to your existing PSP for financing. On the surface, it makes sense: there’s already an integration in place, and adding one more payment option should be simple, right? In reality, this path comes with trade-offs.

Most of the flexible PSPs that serve marketplaces are focused on doing one thing well: moving money from one point to another. Securing the licenses (such as becoming an Electronic Money Institution (EMI)) to do that is complex, so many providers tend to stick to processing online payments only. Lending comes with additional layers of risk management, compliance, and oversight that many PSPs don’t want to invest in. When financing requests do come up, they typically loop in a third party who specialises in financing.

The exception would be larger PSPs. Their broad product offerings may include a financing solution, but their size often means slower response times, rigid fees, and limited flexibility. They also typically serve B2C and ecommerce marketplaces, where individual risk is harder to assess. To mitigate that risk, these larger PSPs tend to charge more for the service or are more selective with who they lend to. 

2. Banks and other traditional financial institutions: Reputable, but limited accessibility

Another option is to work with a bank or traditional financial institution. You might open up a line of credit to advance payments to sellers, or enter a factoring arrangement where you sell invoices for upfront cash while the bank or factoring company handles payment collection.

The upside is reliability. Banks are reputable, familiar, and their meticulous processes help protect against fraud and ensure secure payments. But those same manual processes can also slow you down. It’s difficult to adjust your credit limit or onboard new buyers and sellers quickly, and decisions often depend on lengthy risk assessments. In fact, many banks won’t even begin evaluating loans below €50M, which puts financing out of reach for your marketplace’s smaller users.

3. Embedded invoice financing solution: Integrated and scalable

With embedded invoice financing, a third-party financing partner integrates directly into your marketplace’s payment flow. That partner reviews and approves users for financing, advances funds to sellers so they get paid early, and then collects repayment from the buyer.

Unlike with other financing options like B2B BNPL, your users don’t have to leave your platform or go through a separate application process. Everything happens within your marketplace. 

Sellers sign up and onboard directly through your platform. Invoice management and instant payment requests also occur there. Behind the scenes, the financing partner handles underwriting, advances funds, collects payment from the buyer, and manages credit and fraud risk. 

With embedded invoice financing, you can pay sellers faster without tying up your capital or adding operational burden. The financing partner takes on credit risk and frees you to focus on growth. And because the solution is integrated, it scales with your marketplace, letting you add new users and expand easily.

Why choose Aria as your marketplace financing solution?

Aria is a single solution for payments, financing, and risk management. As invoice financing experts with a €2 billion financing capacity, we’ve funded over a million invoices and 7,000+ debtors, including 80% of the 40 largest publicly traded companies in France. 

Our solution is designed to be embedded directly into your marketplace platform, letting you have full control over the payment experience. With just a few clicks, you can set up a scalable system that automates credit decisioning, payment orchestration, reconciliation, and reporting.

[Aria is the step after payments, we are not a PSP, designed to operate alongside your PSP]

Pay suppliers within 24 hours and build loyalty and retention

Traditional financing options often exclude marketplace sellers. This is because banks don’t typically recognise marketplace revenue models since they don’t fall into a typical lending scenario. As a result, sellers who rely on marketplaces for sales are highly sensitive to cash flow; they prioritise platforms that pay them faster to keep their operations running smoothly. 

Aria helps you better serve your users with embedded invoice financing. Sellers can onboard through your platform with our invoice financing embedded, get approved almost instantly, and choose which invoices they want financed – all without leaving your marketplace.

 

Once a buyer validates an invoice, Aria can advance up to 100% of the funds, paying the seller within 24 hours of an instant payout request. With our risk assessment process, we’re able to approve most financing requests – near-99% acceptance for corporations and 90% for SMEs. 

Unlike traditional factors, which evaluate the supplier and often exclude small businesses, Aria underwrites the buyer. This allows us to finance invoices for small sellers that are guaranteed to be paid by large, stable companies.

When an invoice is financed, we fund it outright through disbursements to the seller’s bank account. When the buyer pays, they pay us, and we take on the credit risk if there are any disputes or chargebacks. Your buyers can pay on their regular payment terms without disrupting their payment flows, and we’ll manage collections and cover the loss if a user defaults on their repayments.

With Aria, financing becomes a feature you can advertise proudly. When sellers get paid faster, their loyalty increases and your marketplace becomes more attractive. This helps you grow your seller base, boost transaction volume, and strengthen your competitive edge – all without tying up your own cash.

Scale on your terms while reducing operating costs thanks to Aria’s modular configuration and automated APIs

Managing payments, financing, and risk with rigid systems or multiple tools can quickly become overwhelming. One vendor for KYC, another for escrow, a third for payment processing – you end up juggling different contracts and account managers, which adds complexity and cost. 

But with Aria, you get one customisable solution that handles payments, invoice financing, and risk management. We help you build a B2B payment experience with configurable workflows that perfectly fit your marketplace. You can start manually on a few transactions using the dashboard, then gradually scale with our white-labeled REST API as you grow.

Payments between businesses are complicated, involving purchase orders, invoices, credit memos, and more that need to be tracked and processed. It’s a lot to handle manually, but Aria’s APIs can automate all your payment flows. With 99% of payments automated, we help you reduce operating costs and minimise errors from manual processes. 

Because our solution is embedded directly into your platform – and has built-in support for 100+ countries and multiple currencies – we scale naturally with you as your marketplace grows. 

Protect against fraud with Aria’s KYC/KYB tools and risk analysis system

Faster payments and higher transaction volumes inevitably raise concerns about fraud. When payments are instant and invoices are financed in real time, marketplaces need to know safeguards are in place to protect both sides of every transaction.

Aria addresses this with a robust, automated risk management system that keeps fraud in check without slowing you down. We conduct KYC/KYB checks across 100+ countries, so you can easily verify buyers and sellers via our white-label dashboards. Our risk analysis system adds another layer of protection:

• Detailed credit and risk scores give you insights into each counterparty’s financial health, so you can set payment terms that reflect their solvency and risk profile.
• AI-powered fraud detection tools monitor transactions to flag irregular behaviour, like sudden spikes in volume or information changes, so you can detect and stop fraud before it impacts your platform. 
• Invoice validation tracking lets you see in real time when buyers have confirmed invoices, helping you anticipate and resolve potential disputes or refunds before they escalate.

Since a large part is automated, all necessary checks occur fast enough to keep up with your payment flow – while keeping you compliant and blocking fraud.

If issues do arise – such as buyer non-payment, invoice disputes, or fraudulent activity – you’re still protected. We take on the credit and dispute risk, so your marketplace is 100% protected against losses. Meanwhile, our debt collection process is designed to recover funds with tact and humanity, ensuring we protect the relationships that keep your marketplace thriving. 

How Aria helped UrbanChain achieve 10x growth in revenue in just one year with embedded invoice financing

UrbanChain is a UK-based energy tech company creating local energy markets that connect renewable generators directly with consumers. As it grew, the company soon ran into payment challenges:

• Bigger customers demanded longer payment terms, but their vendors needed quick payments to keep operations running. 
• Manual financing processes were unsustainable as the company processed hundreds of invoices at once.
• Traditional financing options couldn’t support UrbanChain’s ambitious expansion nor provide the line-by-line flexibility they needed for their diverse vendor portfolio.

UrbanChain turned to Aria for our flexible approach and technological capabilities. With our API integration, they integrated an automated financing solution that enabled line-by-line financing for vendors with different credit ratings. Beyond the tech, Aria worked closely with UrbanChain to provide proactive support and problem-solving at every stage.

Since implementation, UrbanChain’s revenue grew 10x, from £2.4M in FY23 to £25M in FY24. Other achievements include:

• Vendor payment times dropped to just 15 hours.
• £11M in invoices were financed by Aria.
• Higher credit limits for bigger clients paved the way for more business opportunities.

All in all, Aria helped UrbanChain build a foundation for limitless growth, letting them scale confidently without compromising vendor relationships or cash flow.

Marketplace payment processing solutions that embed financing create a better experience for all parties

As a growing marketplace, you know the pressure: sellers want faster payouts, buyers want to pay on their regular payment terms, and if you can’t deliver, users may turn to marketplace businesses that do.

But not any financing setup will do. You need a solution that’s seamless for your users and simple, secure, and scalable on your end. That’s exactly what embedded invoice financing delivers. It integrates into your existing payment experience so you can finance users without added friction.

With Aria, you get a single solution for marketplace payment processing, invoice financing, and risk management. Our white-labeled B2B payment API integrates with your unique system, automates payment workflows, and provides the tools and insights you need to minimise fraud and payment risk. 

Reach out for a demo to learn how our embedded financing solution can accelerate growth for your marketplace.

FAQs

How is Aria different from traditional factoring?

Aria integrates directly into your platform, so suppliers can get onboarded and paid instantly without leaving your software. We also underwrite the buyer (debtor), not the supplier, which allows us to make financing accessible to the SMBs that traditional factors reject.

How does Aria protect against fraud?

Aria processes dozens of risk checks – debtor solvency, KYC/KYB across 100+ countries, fraud detection, invoice validation – automatically. With 92% of decisions made instantly, you get multi-layered protection without slowing down your payments.

Is Aria compatible with my marketplace?

Aria can be easily embedded via API into most B2B marketplaces and platforms. Our API supports all payment and invoicing scenarios and is designed for platforms where invoices are created or managed digitally – especially those with SMB sellers invoicing larger corporate buyers on 30-90 day terms.