Aussie small businesses have a new fintech in their corner. Pipe—the embedded finance company known for using real revenue data rather than credit scores to fund businesses—has officially signed its first Australian customer: Live Payments, a long-standing, 10,000-merchant payment solutions provider with nearly two decades in the market.

The announcement marks Pipe’s latest stop on an ambitious global rollout that now includes the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. And the choice of Australia is hardly random—the country’s SMBs have long served as early testers of new fintech tools, often outpacing markets like the US in adoption of digital payments, cloud accounting, and alternative lending. But the lending landscape itself? That’s still firmly bank-dominated, and notoriously slow. Which is exactly the opening Pipe is betting on.

Why Australia—and Why Now?

The Australian SMB financing gap isn’t subtle. Research pegs the shortfall at $38 billion, and more than half of all small-business loan applications are rejected. That mismatch between capital demand and bank appetite has created fertile ground for lenders with faster underwriting, clearer terms, and less paperwork.

Pipe’s pitch fits neatly into the gap: a platform that uses a business’s own payment flows and revenue performance—not credit scores, personal guarantees, or a novella’s worth of documentation—to generate personalized, pre-approved capital offers.

For Pipe, Australia’s digital-first merchants make the market look especially attractive. Payment data is plentiful. Adoption of alternative funding is high. And embedded finance—tools integrated directly inside the platforms merchants already use—is moving from novelty to expectation.

Luke Voiles, Pipe’s CEO, puts it this way:

“Pipe is at an exciting stage, with an expansion playbook that lets us enter new markets quickly and a product designed to make a real difference for small businesses everywhere.”

It helps that Pipe already has a local business entity on the ground. That means no awkward middle-phase of regulatory limbo that often slows US fintechs entering Australia.

Inside the Pipe–Live Payments Partnership

Live Payments is no small fry. With more than 19 years in the Australian market and tens of thousands of merchants across retail, hospitality, and services, the company maintains a solid foothold in mission-critical business workflows. Its customer portal is where merchants already manage payments, reconcile transactions, and monitor day-to-day cash flow.

Now, those same merchants will see Pipe-powered capital offers embedded directly inside the portal—no external applications, no bank appointments, no follow-up documents “requested via email in 3–5 business days.”

Pre-approved offers are driven by Live Payments’ existing data connections and Pipe’s underwriting engine, which evaluates:

• Revenue quality
• Cash flow patterns
• Seasonality
• Historical performance
• Transactional consistency

That lets Pipe generate capital offers automatically, with transparent up-front pricing rather than dynamic or opaque fee structures that plague many alternative lenders.

Live Payments CEO Reuven Barukh sees it as a natural extension of the company’s relationship with merchants:

“Our customers trust us with mission-critical parts of their business, and offering working capital is a natural next step in strengthening that relationship.”

Merchants don’t have to leave the platform they already rely on. That’s the sticky magic of embedded finance: keep the user in flow, and the conversion rates jump.

Embedded Finance Goes Global—And Pipe Wants a Front-Row Seat

The Pipe–Live Payments partnership is part of a larger trend: fintech infrastructure players moving upstream, embedding financial products at the platform level rather than relying on standalone offerings.

In the US, platforms like Toast, Shopify, and Square have long leveraged embedded lending as a revenue engine—and a way to keep merchants locked in. But adoption outside the US is accelerating fast. Australia in particular has become a showcase for embedded payments (hello Tyro, Zeller, and Stripe’s rapid growth) and is now ripe for embedded credit offerings.

Pipe, unlike many revenue-based financing companies, positions itself as infrastructure rather than the merchant-facing lender. Platforms integrate Pipe to deliver working capital to their customers. That means Pipe becomes the Intel Inside of embedded capital, rather than the brand merchants interact with directly.

This infrastructure-first strategy makes global expansion easier. Platforms already own the merchant relationship; Pipe simply extends the toolkit.

With the Live Payments deal, Pipe is signaling it’s ready to play in markets where traditional lending is concentrated among a handful of banks—or where SMBs still face friction in accessing credit.

Australia scores highly on both counts.

What Makes Pipe’s Model Different?

Plenty of fintechs have entered the SMB lending scene. Fewer have stayed. The recipe for durability usually includes four ingredients:

1. High-quality data
2. Fast, low-friction underwriting
3. Transparent pricing
4. Distribution at scale

Pipe has spent the last two years reorienting itself toward those principles after moving away from its original narrative-based financing marketplace. The company shifted to a more predictable, embedded-focused platform built on recurring merchant data. That pivot has given the company a clearer, more durable product-market fit.

Pipe’s main differentiators include:

1. Data-first underwriting

Pipe leans heavily on cash-flow data, not credit scores or personal guarantees. That opens the door for businesses traditionally left out by bank underwriting.

2. Pre-approved, personalized offers

Merchants see what they qualify for immediately—no lengthy processing time, no “pending analyst review,” and no bait-and-switch pricing.

3. Integrated distribution

Instead of acquiring customers one by one, Pipe partners with platforms like Live Payments to distribute capital through tools SMBs are already using daily.

4. Transparent, upfront pricing

SMBs remain wary of lenders whose fees change between quote and contract (or who price via complex revenue-share models). Pipe opts for fixed, upfront pricing.

5. Global scalability baked in

With a plug-and-play integration model, Pipe can enter new markets without replicating full-stack operations.

The timed expansion into Australia suggests that the playbook is working.

How Pipe Fits Into the Australian Fintech Competitive Landscape

Embedded lending is still relatively new in Australia, though several players have paved the way:

• Stripe Capital and Square Loans offer merchant cash advances.
• Moula, Prospa, OnDeck, and Capify provide online small business loans.
• Zeller is rumored to be exploring deeper embedded finance plays.
• Tyro offers merchant cash advances tied to EFTPOS revenue.

Pipe’s approach differs in two key ways:

1. It’s a platform, not a direct lender.
   Platforms plug into Pipe and offer capital under their own umbrellas.
2. It emphasizes pre-approved, data-driven offers inside existing workflows.
   That reduces friction dramatically compared to stand-alone applications.

If Pipe succeeds in Australia, it could push more payment, POS, and SaaS providers to rethink how they deliver capital.

The Merchant View: Why This Matters

From a small business owner’s perspective, the value proposition is refreshingly simple:

• Already using the Live Payments portal?
• Want working capital?
• See your personalized offer.
• Decide with clear pricing.
• No paperwork.
• Funds delivered fast.

For hospitality businesses with seasonal swings, e-commerce sellers who scale rapidly, or service providers with fluctuating invoice cycles, cash flow flexibility can be the difference between surviving and growing.

In markets where banks remain conservative, alternatives that don’t rely on credit scores or personal collateral can be game-changers.

Strategic Implications for Pipe’s Expansion Playbook

Pipe claims it can now enter new markets quickly. That’s feasible because:

• Its underwriting doesn’t depend on credit bureau integration.
• It evaluates revenue data, which most platforms already maintain.
• Regulatory hurdles are lighter for embedded capital partners compared to full-stack lenders.
• Partners shoulder merchant acquisition.

The Australian launch will be a test of whether the model scales cleanly across geographies. If it does, markets like New Zealand, Singapore, and Western Europe could be next in line.

What This Means for Live Payments

Live Payments gains three advantages:

1. Stronger merchant retention
   Working capital is sticky. Merchants that take funding tend to stay longer with the platform that offered it.
2. New revenue stream
   Embedded lending adds monetization beyond payment processing fees.
3. Competitive differentiation
   Payment providers increasingly look similar. Offering capital gives Live Payments something rivals lack.

Live Payments is also responding to merchant demand. Barukh notes that early interest in the capital product has already been strong.

Industry Trend Check: Embedded Finance Is Becoming Standard, Not Optional

Over the last year, embedded finance has shifted from buzzword to baseline expectation. APIs and infrastructure players—Marqeta, Unit, Stripe Connect, Adyen, and more—have pushed financial services closer to where business owners spend their time.

What once required a bank partnership and a multi-year product build can now be launched with a few API calls.

Pipe’s move to Australia follows the same arc. And given the speed of adoption in the region, the company likely won’t be the last embedded capital provider to set up shop.

What to Watch Next

Over the next 12 months, the following questions will determine whether Pipe’s Australian expansion becomes a successful case study:

• Merchant uptake: Will SMBs trust Pipe-powered offers embedded in Live Payments’ portal?
• Unit economics: Can Pipe maintain attractive margins in a new region with different revenue patterns?
• Platform partnerships: Will more Australian payment, POS, or SaaS providers integrate Pipe?
• Regulatory adjustments: How will evolving consumer and SMB credit regulations shape the product?
• Competitive responses: Will incumbents, especially the Big Four banks or upstarts like Zeller, respond with their own embedded lending offerings?

If the early indicators hold, Pipe is betting Australia will become a template rather than a test.

The Bottom Line

Pipe’s entry into Australia via Live Payments is more than just another regional announcement. It signals a broader shift: SMB capital is becoming integrated, data-driven, and platform-native. Australia—home to digitally savvy merchants and a massive SMB funding gap—could prove to be one of the most fertile markets for embedded finance yet.

If the partnership delivers what it promises, Live Payments customers will gain something Australian small businesses haven’t had enough of: fast, transparent, and accessible working capital, delivered inside the tools they already use.

And for Pipe, it’s another step toward becoming the default embedded capital engine for platforms worldwide.