YouLend & WorkWave Expand Embedded SMB Financing

At Money20/20 USA 2025, Ted Kirk of YouLend and Jacob Olins of WorkWave explored how embedded finance — particularly embedded lending — is becoming a critical growth engine for vertical SaaS platforms and the millions of small businesses they serve.

WorkWave operates across field-service industries including pest control, landscaping, lawn care, cleaning, and security — providing an operating system that helps businesses run more efficiently. Olins leads WorkWave’s fintech division, which began with payments but now spans capital access, fund flows, and deeper financial tooling. His mandate is simple: help customers manage money more effectively without distracting WorkWave from its core mission as a software company.

Olins previously launched an embedded capital product at EPOS Now, where the challenge was clear: the offering lacked precision. Customers were encouraged to apply, only to later be told they didn’t qualify — damaging trust. After exploring build-vs-partner options, Olins selected YouLend because it delivered three essentials: high confidence in approved offers, slick onboarding, and strong operational support for closing deals. When EPOS Now embedded the offer directly into its back office, financing uptake quadrupled overnight.

That success made YouLend the obvious partner when Olins moved to WorkWave. Despite serving a different segment — more B2B-heavy, more sophisticated, with mixed revenue streams — the principles remained the same: software companies want to focus on product innovation, not risk management.

Kirk agreed, noting a universal pattern across SaaS platforms: whether in retail, restaurants, field services, or broader horizontal tools like accounting, SMBs share the same needs. They want to accept payments easily, access capital quickly, and streamline operations so they can focus on serving customers. Seasonality adds nuance, but the underlying demand is consistent — and often underserved.

This is where YouLend’s latest innovation comes in: universal revenue financing. Instead of underwriting only against card-processed revenue, YouLend now evaluates all revenue sources — ACH, checks, bank transfers, lockbox deposits, recurring invoices, and more. For industries where card payments represent only a fraction of income, this dramatically expands eligibility and increases the size of available offers.

For partners like WorkWave, the impact is twofold:

1. More businesses qualify for capital, including those previously excluded from both banks and alternative lenders.

2. Capital offers become meaningfully larger, driving higher conversion and greater value for merchants.

As embedded finance matures, Kirk and Olins see a clear trajectory: SaaS platforms will increasingly become the primary financial access point for SMBs. By pairing vertical expertise with scalable fintech infrastructure, companies like WorkWave and YouLend are redefining how small businesses access capital — seamlessly, contextually, and on their own terms.

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