Defacto Goes Live on Mambu Payments to Scale Embedded SME Financing in France

Quick Summary

Defacto has integrated Mambu Payments to automate SEPA payment flows for its B2B lending platform. This partnership allows Defacto to scale embedded SME financing by connecting directly to institutional banking partners via a single API, bypassing the need for complex, manual bank integrations or rigid BaaS models.

How Does Mambu Payments Scale SME Lending?

Mambu Payments provides a modern REST API that enables real-time visibility across all payment flows, including disbursements and repayments. By utilizing this infrastructure, Defacto has successfully automated its receivables financing programme, allowing the fintech to focus on customer value rather than technical debt. Key benefits include:

• Automated SEPA connectivity for seamless cross-border transactions.
• Direct account operation on top of existing tier-1 banking relationships.
• Reusable architecture that facilitates rapid expansion to new institutional partners.

The implementation marks a shift away from traditional Banking-as-a-Service models, offering a more flexible approach for regulated fintechs to manage their own infrastructure while maintaining compliance.

What Results Has Defacto Delivered with Mambu?

Since its inception in 2021, Defacto has achieved significant scale, financing over €1.5 billion for more than 25,000 SMEs. The collaboration with Mambu followed a rapid deployment timeline, moving from initial scoping in July 2025 to full production by January 2026. This six-month rollout underscores the efficiency of composable banking infrastructure in highly regulated markets like France. By removing the technical burden of bespoke integrations, Defacto can now deploy lending programs directly into the infrastructure of major financial institutions with enhanced operational security.

FF NEWS TAKE:

This move by Defacto and Mambu Payments definitely moves the needle for embedded SME financing. By decoupling the payment operations layer from the underlying bank account, Mambu is solving a major friction point for fintechs who want to scale without being locked into a single custodian bank. This "bring your own bank" approach to API-first infrastructure is the future of regulated fintech, offering the agility of a startup with the stability of a tier-1 institution.