Vivid and Visa Launch Spend Management Suite to Kill 'Zombie Subscriptions'

Vivid and Visa have expanded their partnership to integrate comprehensive spend management tools directly into business accounts. For fintech professionals, this move signals a shift away from fragmented third-party subscription trackers by allowing SMEs to identify and block "zombie subscriptions" and merchant-stored card data before charges occur, streamlining the corporate finance stack.

What was announced

Berlin-based Vivid has launched an integrated suite of spend management tools in collaboration with Visa, designed to eliminate the need for SMEs to use separate providers for banking and expense tracking. Central to this expansion is the "Card-Linked Services" feature, which allows businesses to identify exactly where company cards are stored across various apps and websites. Unlike traditional trackers that react to past payments, this tool identifies potential charges before they hit the account.

Data from Vivid indicates that 44% of active business cards on its platform are currently stored in merchant checkouts, often without the company's explicit knowledge. This lack of visibility contributes to "zombie subscriptions"—recurring charges for unused services. Vivid cites Zylo’s 2025 SaaS Management Index, noting that over half of purchased software licenses (52.7%) go unused annually. By bringing these controls into the primary business account, Vivid enables finance teams to set spending limits, manage employee access, and block individual merchants from a single interface. The service aims to reduce the time spent on manual tracking and prevent the financial leak caused by forgotten free trials and redundant software seats.

• See where company cards are stored, across apps and websites.
• Spot recurring subscriptions before they add up.
• Block individual merchants.
• Stop unwanted payments — so-called "zombie subscriptions" — before they happen.

The companies involved

Visa is a global leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, and financial institutions across more than 200 countries and territories. The company maintains a massive footprint in the fintech ecosystem, frequently partnering with emerging platforms to enhance B2B payment infrastructure and security. Vivid is a fintech firm focused on consolidating financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises. By integrating banking with spend management, the company positions itself as a comprehensive financial "cockpit" for founders. While many fintechs focus on either the payment rail or the accounting software, Vivid’s strategy involves merging these functions to reduce the friction of multi-vendor stacks. The partnership with Visa leverages the card network's global reach and data capabilities to provide deeper visibility into merchant-side card storage, a persistent pain point for corporate finance teams. This collaboration reflects a broader market trend where established payment networks provide the underlying technology for agile fintechs to build specialized, vertical-specific tools for the SME sector.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively tracked Visa’s aggressive expansion into specialized B2B and digital asset services. Recently, the network collaborated with industry players in the Visa, BILL and Billtrust Launch First Live Pilot for Trusted AI Agent B2B Payments initiative, highlighting a focus on automation. The company has also been active in the digital currency space, as seen when Visa and Mesh Partner to Enable Crypto Payments at 175 Million Merchants Globally. Furthermore, the network's global reach was emphasized when StraitsX Partners with Visa to Launch Stablecoin-Backed Cards in Over 100 Markets. These developments underscore a strategy of embedding Visa's rails into diverse financial workflows, from AI-driven payments to stablecoin integration, mirroring the depth of the current Vivid partnership.

What this means

This announcement highlights the intensifying battle for the "primary business account." By embedding spend management directly into the banking layer, Vivid is putting significant pressure on pure-play SaaS expense management platforms that rely on third-party bank feeds. The shift from reactive reporting to proactive merchant-blocking suggests that the industry is moving toward "active" treasury management. For the wider sector, the question is whether SMEs will continue to tolerate the "SaaS tax" of multiple subscriptions for financial oversight when their core banking provider offers the same visibility for free. It signals a commoditization of basic spend tracking, forcing standalone expense apps to find deeper value elsewhere.