YouLend puts working capital inside REA Card terminals across Germany

YouLend has partnered with German payments provider REA Card to offer revenue-based working capital directly to merchants using its point-of-sale infrastructure, extending embedded finance into the systems through which small businesses collect their daily takings.

The arrangement covers businesses using REA Card’s payment terminals, cash-register systems and SoftPOS products. Financing eligibility and capacity will be informed by company and card-sales data, allowing merchants to receive offers based more closely on current trading performance than on a conventional bank application alone.

REA Card’s dedicated financing product offers between €1,000 and €500,000 for uses including inventory purchases, refurbishment, equipment, marketing and short-term liquidity. Merchants repay through an agreed percentage of their card revenues rather than a fixed monthly instalment, meaning repayments rise or fall alongside sales.

The companies say the digital application can be completed in under ten minutes, with an offer often available on the same day and funding potentially released within 48 hours. A fixed fee is agreed at the outset instead of conventional interest, while the maximum available funding is linked to the merchant’s card-revenue history.

“Small businesses have no time for bureaucracy,” said Leonard Strigel, general manager for Europe at YouLend. The partnership is aimed at card-dependent sectors including hospitality, retail, taxis, bakeries, salons and convenience businesses, where inventory or operating costs frequently arise before sales revenue has accumulated.

For REA Card, the product expands its relationship with merchants beyond payment acceptance. Phillip Becker, the company’s chief executive, said customers should have a partner that helps them grow as well as process transactions.

The launch also marks a distinct expansion of YouLend’s German strategy. Its recent JTL partnership embedded finance within e-commerce software used by more than 15,000 merchants. The REA Card agreement takes the same model into physical retail and hospitality, where terminal data can provide a continuous view of sales performance.

The commercial significance lies in placing funding at the point where revenue is generated. For merchants, that may reduce application friction. For payment providers, working-capital finance creates a new service and revenue stream while potentially strengthening customer retention.