Adyen has partnered with Flatpay to provide acquiring and financial infrastructure for the Denmark-based fintech's SMB expansion.
The partnership supports Flatpay's 'flat-rate' pricing model for SMBs in Europe, as well as the company's plans to scale in current markets and enter new ones.
The division of roles means that merchants continue to deal directly with Flatpay, while Adyen provides the acquiring and infrastructure layer in the background.
Local acquiring for multi-market growth
Flatpay, which has reached unicorn status, currently operates in seven European markets: Denmark, Germany, Finland, the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Italy. Through the partnership, the company will rely on Adyen's local acquiring capabilities and international licensing to expand into additional markets. This removes the need for Flatpay to build its own localised financial back-office infrastructure in each country.
The setup combines Adyen's single platform with its local card scheme integrations. According to the companies, this is intended to let Flatpay adapt to country-specific payment requirements. It should also improve authorisation rates and reliability in the markets where Flatpay is already active.
Tobias Lindh, Country Manager Nordics & Baltics at Adyen, said that SMBs across Europe are looking for simplicity, reliability, and speed in their payments. He also described Flatpay's high-touch service model and Adyen's unified technology stack as complementary, and said Adyen would support Flatpay as it enters new markets and explores embedded financial services.
Embedded finance as a next step
Beyond acquiring, the partnership gives Flatpay the option to integrate Adyen's Embedded Finance suite into its platform. This could allow Flatpay to launch products such as instant settlement, cash advances, business accounts, and card issuing. The companies have not said when these services may be introduced.
Flatpay reports more than 100.000 merchants, a base it says is growing by thousands each month. The additional services are intended to move the company from a payments and point-of-sale (POS) provider towards a broader financial services partner for SMBs.
Sander Janca-Jensen, CEO and Co-founder of Flatpay, said the business was set up to reduce complexity for SMBs and to address the high fees and poor customer service they have faced for decades. According to the announcement, Adyen's infrastructure allows Flatpay to keep its locally focused merchant relationships as it expands across Europe.
Implications for the SMB payments segment
The agreement shows how a merchant-facing provider can scale across several jurisdictions using a partner's acquiring licences and scheme connections rather than its own. Flatpay keeps control of the customer relationship and pricing model, while market entry and payment processing run through Adyen's platform.
For Adyen, the partnership adds a merchant base in the European SMB segment across seven countries. It also creates a potential channel for its embedded finance products should Flatpay introduce them.
