Zopa Acquires Rvvup to Drive Embedded Finance Business

U.K. digital bank Zopa says it is purchasing payments platform Rvvup.

The company said the deal, announced Monday (Sept. 1), will accelerate its retail finance services and triple the size of Zopa’s embedded finance business within two years.

“This unique offering drives multiple benefits for merchants and end consumers alike,” Zopa said in a news release. “New and existing merchants benefit from a single, simple integration, deeper data insight, better payment conversion and lower overall processing costs within the next six months. For U.K. consumers, Rvvup’s offering allows a fast and seamless payment journey combined with flexibility and extensive payment method choice.”

According to the release, Rvvup can automate the payment process, syncing with tools like Xero and handling daily reconciliation tasks that merchants face when dealing with multiple payments providers.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has charted the growing importance of embedded finance, particularly among small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

According to “Platform Power: The Growing Importance of Embedded Finance to SMB Success,” a collaboration with Worldpay, 65% of these businesses said they’d be willing to walk away from their current vendors for ones offering embedded finance.

“The reason isn’t cost or poor customer service, but the absence of embedded financial services like payments, lending and banking,” PYMNTS wrote in July. “As these digital-native features become critical, satisfaction with integrated finance capabilities is emerging as the top predictor of vendor retention.”

Despite conventional assumptions that pricing is crucial to customer loyalty, the presence and quality of integrated payments capabilities have a more significant effect on the lifetime value of a SMB customer.

For software providers, this means that overlooking embedded payments can directly lead to higher churn rates. With payments integration, SMBs can speed up checkout experiences, reduce cart abandonment, and simplify financial reconciliation—advantages that go beyond operational efficiency and enter the realm of customer satisfaction.

“In fact, SMBs with access to well-integrated payments systems can potentially experience revenue growth boosts ranging between 25% and 50%, depending on the sector,” PYMNTS added. “These gains are not marginal; they are transformational for small businesses operating with limited margins and intense competition.”

The Rvvup acquisition is Zopa’s second, following its purchase of point-of-sale finance technology and lending platform DivideBuy in 2023.

Zopa also recently raised 80 million pounds ($107 million) in new capital in preparation for the rolling out of its bank account.