United States country guide

The SaaS platform business model is dominant in the US. Globally, it has the highest number of SaaS platforms with 9,100 and counting. The space is hyper-verticalized, with platforms that specifically cater to dog groomers, pizzerias, and other niches.

We see the highest concentration of platforms in Food & Beverage, retail, hospitality, healthcare, beauty, and fitness verticals. The US is also the domestic market for many industry juggernauts in F&B like Toast, Lightspeed, and Olo.

“Adyen’s proven capabilities at scale, plus our shared vision of seamless embedded financial services, sets the table to transform how the restaurant industry operates.”

Tor Opedal, SVP & GM of Payments, Olo

The competitive landscape in the US

The highly competitive nature of the US market has affected payments maturity. Platforms that are looking to increase market share are aware of how integrated financial technology plays a pivotal role in sustaining long-term platform growth.

The value of financial technology is conceptually understood. Many already have experience with embedded payments and finance, even if this chalks up to dealing with a patchwork of vendors.

Leading US SaaS platforms are trailblazers in monetizing embedded payment into a core revenue stream, with innovators already seeing +50% of revenue coming from payments. The US market size for platforms exceeded 1 trillion dollars in 2023.

"If you look at more advanced businesses, examples exist in the market now where they make more money off of payments than they do off of their software offering, which was the business they set out to build. This is just the beginning. Because if you start dreaming on the applications of accounts, capital, and issued cards, it’s a huge revolution."

Hemmo Bosscher, SVP Platforms and Financial Services, Adyen

SMB appetite in the US

The varied supply of SaaS platforms in the US is met with a healthy demand from SMBs. 82% of SMBs are using a platform, 40% are currently using embedded payments, and 30% leverage embedded financial products.

Across verticals, SMB in the US see the priority for payments as speed, security, and convenience. These expectations align with the level of maturity and digitalization of the local consumer payments culture.

SMBs are increasingly interested in ‘all-in-one’ platform solutions that incorporate software and unified cross-channel payments.

Local payments methods landscape in the US

The payments landscape in the US is dominated by global card schemes like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and Diners. The dominance of these schemes mean market entry and expansion strategies for SaaS platforms need to include card payments.

Cashless payments and contactless payments are on the rise, with 51% of Americans using some form of contactless payment. Since their popularity is growing among younger generations, SaaS platforms should diversify their payment method mix to include Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) like Apple Pay and Google Pay™.

For platforms that offer in-person payments (IPP) as a part of their embedded payments offering, SMBs need to be equipped with terminals that meet their needs.

PINs aren’t required in standard terminal flows and tipping is prioritized. Needs are further influenced by verticals. SMBs in F&B may need small, waterproof terminals like the NYC1 that can pay-at-table and survive a food-serving environment. SMBs in retail may look for Tap-to-Pay functionality that turns Android or Apple devices into payment terminals.

The security and regulatory context in the US

Payments security remains a primary concern in the US. Platforms offering embedded payments need to be constantly up-to-date on compliance, cybersecurity, and tax regulations to help differentiate them in a crowded market.

The payments landscape is evolving and often differs state to state. Precautions such as Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) chip technology and network tokenization are becoming the standard to protect personal and financial data.

Key considerations:

Adhering to Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations to build trust with users and regulatory authorities.
Meeting PCI DSS standards to prevent payment-card data breaches and ensure user-data security
Navigating GDPR and CCPA data protection laws to safeguard user data and avoid non-compliance penalties
Implementing fraud prevention measures like multi-factor authentication and transaction monitoring to protect platforms and SMBs.

Our banking infrastructure and compliance teams provide vital support to our platform customers. We handle much of the regulatory burden to ensure continuous compliance, mitigate transaction risks and liabilities, and ultimately let platforms focus mostly on core objectives and support their users.

Key considerations for expansion to the US

The majority of SMBs in the US are already using platforms and beginning to embrace embedded payments and embedded financial services. To gain market share, SaaS platforms should prioritize speed, security, and convenience to meet evolving customer needs.

To summarize: