Challenge

Founded in 2008, Serent Capital was built to support founder-led, bootstrapped software companies at key stages of growth. For many vertical SaaS companies in early stages, payments and embedded finance represent a significant opportunity for product differentiation and monetization. At the time of investment, some companies have not yet launched embedded payments, while others rely on solutions that are not fully integrated into core product workflows.

“Embedded payment represents an opportunity for our vertical software companies to continue to provide category-leading solutions to their end customers, designed exactly for that customer to improve their productivity, help them scale, and provide an exceptional user experience,” said Prital Kadakia, partner at Serent Capital. “As AI-enabled capabilities continue to evolve, the level of enhancements our companies can provide around payments can result in increasingly differentiated products for their customers.”

To support portfolio companies in building and scaling payment capabilities, Serent Capital expanded its roster of trusted payments partners, prioritizing technical depth, embedded finance capabilities, and flexibility across different stages of growth.

Solution

In 2023, Serent Capital selected Stripe as a payments partner to support portfolio companies with embedded payments and finance capabilities across a range of industries and customer types. In some cases, Serent Capital and portfolio companies identify opportunities to optimize existing payments functionality.

For example, one Serent portfolio company serving a regulated, multistakeholder customer base undertook a platform upgrade to simplify and modernize its payments infrastructure. Prior to the upgrade, the company relied on multiple payment processors, creating operational complexity, fragmented reporting, and a high support burden.

To consolidate workflows that previously required multiple vendors, the company implemented several Stripe products. Stripe Connect was used to route payments to end customers, along with Stripe-hosted onboarding to streamline setup. Stripe Payments supported online transactions, while Stripe Terminal enabled in-person payments, providing customers with a unified view of transactions across channels.

“With Stripe and the Connect platform, it was easy to build the necessary workflows directly into our system,” said a payments leader at the portfolio company. “A key consideration was how quickly we could get this product in front of our customers.”

Beyond optimizing existing payment workflows, Serent Capital also supports portfolio companies in launching new embedded payment capabilities. In several cases, companies embedded payments directly into their applications, allowing end users to complete transactions without leaving core workflows and simplifying onboarding and compliance for customers.

Serent Capital and Stripe maintain an ongoing partnership that includes sharing insights on payments strategy, implementation challenges, and portfolio needs, helping inform how both organizations support software companies as they build and scale embedded payment capabilities.

Results

Over $1 billion in payment volume processed across the portfolio

Since the partnership launched in 2023, 12 Serent Capital portfolio companies have implemented Stripe products, collectively processing over $1 billion in payment volume. These implementations span a range of industries and use cases, supporting both online and in-person payment workflows embedded directly into portfolio company products.

“Stripe has been a great partner to us and our executive teams, from how we implement the product to how we work together and the support we receive, particularly from Stripe’s Private Equity team,” said Kadakia.

Portfolio companies launch and scale payment workflows efficiently

For Serent Capital’s portfolio companies, the ability to implement payments with minimal disruption is important. Stripe’s developer tools and implementation support enable companies to bring new payment workflows to market efficiently and iterate as their needs evolve.

For example, one portfolio company launched its integrated payments offering faster than expected, enabling customers to adopt new payment capabilities without lengthy implementation cycles. “It was exciting to see how quickly we were able to bring the product to market,” said the company’s payments leader. “Stripe significantly reduced the complexity of integrating payments into our platform.”

A portfolio company scales payments while accelerating customer onboarding

In less than 18 months after launch, 1 Stripe-powered payments platform within the Serent portfolio processed more than 1 million transactions totaling approximately $250 million in payment volume. By simplifying onboarding and consolidating payment workflows, the company onboarded new customers more quickly than it could with legacy providers, supporting faster go-live timelines and a more streamlined experience.