Schwaner & Co. provides partnership development for payments companies, from target selection and executive outreach through negotiation and launch coordination. We help you pursue distribution through software companies, marketplaces, financial institutions and commercial networks that can offer your payment capabilities to their customers, merchants or users.
Every engagement is run by a senior partnerships executive, supported by a team that handles research, materials and follow-up.
Build new distribution through the platforms and businesses your customers already use.
Schwaner & Co. provides partnership development for payments companies, from target selection and executive outreach through negotiation and launch coordination. We help you pursue distribution through software companies, marketplaces, financial institutions and commercial networks that can offer your payment capabilities to their customers, merchants or users.
Every engagement is run by a senior partnerships executive, supported by a team that handles research, materials and follow-up.
Payments partnership consulting focused on distribution
Your next customer may already use a software platform, accounting firm or business network that could introduce your payments product. A useful partnership gives that business a clear reason to offer your product and gives its customers a practical reason to use it.
Our payments partnership consulting starts by evaluating the partner's commercial incentive and the customer's reason to adopt. We determine which companies can reach the right customers, what the arrangement could look like and whether the opportunity justifies the work required to launch.
For a processor, the objective might be merchant distribution through vertical software. For a B2B payments platform, it might be access through accounting and enterprise software partners. For a payout provider, it could be a marketplace offering seller payouts within its platform. We build the partnership approach around your product, economics and growth priorities.
Where payments companies can find distribution
Payments businesses reach customers in different ways. These are examples of partner categories we would evaluate based on your product, market and operating capabilities.
| Payments segment | Potential distribution partners | What we would evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer payments and peer-to-peer payments | Consumer platforms, marketplaces, membership networks and financial institutions | A recurring customer need that creates a reason to adopt and use the product |
| Merchant acquiring and point of sale | Vertical software providers, franchise groups, merchant associations and reseller networks | The partner's influence on merchant adoption, onboarding and ongoing support |
| Payment gateways and processors | Commerce platforms, subscription software, marketplaces and integration partners | Where your payment capabilities fit an existing transaction workflow |
| Cross-border payments and remittance | Workforce platforms, travel and education businesses, marketplaces and financial institutions | Customer demand, supported countries and currencies, and the relevant payment corridors |
| B2B payments and accounts payable and receivable | Accounting firms, enterprise resource planning partners, banks and business associations | Fit with customers' approval, payment and reconciliation workflows |
| Card issuing and issuer processing | Spend platforms, workforce products, marketplaces and companies offering card programs to their customers or users | A viable card use case, customer distribution and clearly assigned program responsibilities |
Partnership models for payments growth
ISV and software platform partnerships
An independent software vendor, or ISV, can provide access to businesses using its software to run their operations. Relevant opportunities might include field service software, practice management systems, hospitality platforms or industry-specific business applications.
We assess where your product fits the workflow, why the software company would choose to offer it and how customers would adopt it. That includes the existing provider relationship, integration effort, commercial incentives and responsibility for merchant onboarding. We then develop the partner case and lead the commercial discussion.
Referral and channel partnerships
Referral and channel partners can introduce your payments product through an established customer or member relationship. Depending on the product, candidates may include banks, accounting networks, trade associations, franchise organizations and value-added resellers.
We define what a qualified referral looks like, who owns the customer conversation and how the partner is compensated. For reseller arrangements, we also clarify sales responsibilities, onboarding, support and reporting. The agreement needs a practical way for the partner to generate and progress opportunities.
Embedded payments and marketplace partnerships
Embedded payments place a payment capability inside another company's product or customer workflow. A platform might offer payment acceptance, invoicing, supplier payments or payouts as part of a service its customers already use.
We identify businesses where that capability solves a specific customer problem and has a credible commercial case. The partnership discussions address adoption, revenue sharing, customer ownership and launch requirements. Your product and engineering teams assess the technical fit while we coordinate the commercial work.
Where the capability being added is credit rather than payment acceptance, see embedded lending partnerships.
Financial institution and complementary fintech partnerships
Banks and complementary financial technology providers may offer distribution through existing business relationships or product offerings. Opportunities could include a bank introducing a payment solution to business customers or a spend platform adding a relevant payout capability.
We focus on the proposed customer benefit, the partner's distribution role and the commercial arrangement. Your internal specialists evaluate the banking, compliance, risk and operational requirements that apply to the relationship.
What makes a payments partnership worth pursuing
A partner's customer count is only a starting point. We evaluate how much of that audience is relevant, how the product would reach those customers and whether expected revenue justifies the costs of implementation, delivery and support.
- Customer access. Which customers can the partner actually reach, and does it influence the decision to adopt a payments product?
- Product fit. Does your product solve a meaningful problem in the customer's existing workflow, with the required capabilities and market coverage?
- Adoption. What will move a customer from seeing the offer to completing onboarding and making a transaction?
- Economics. What payment activity could realistically reach your product, what adoption is plausible and how much revenue would remain after partner payouts and relevant direct costs?
- Partner commitment. Who owns the opportunity on each side, and can both organizations commit the people and approvals needed to launch?
For example, a software platform with thousands of customers may have limited near-term potential if only a small share fits your product or its existing agreement restricts another provider. A smaller platform could deserve priority if the customer need is clear and its team is ready to act.
Our approach to partner selection is explained further in how we identify strategic partners.
How we develop your payments partnership pipeline
Identify the right targets
We agree on the product, customer segment, commercial objective and partner categories to pursue. Research then narrows the opportunity to specific companies, relevant decision-makers and a clear partnership rationale. You can see why each target belongs on the list and which assumptions still need to be tested.
Engage the decision-makers
We open executive conversations with an explanation of why the partnership could matter to that company. Existing relationships can help where there is relevant overlap; we also develop new conversations through targeted outreach. Follow-up addresses the partner's questions and keeps the next decision clear.
Qualify the opportunity
Discovery tests customer demand, product fit, economics and the partner's willingness to act. We establish who needs to be involved and what each side needs to evaluate. Every active opportunity has a next step, an owner on each side and a target date for the next decision.
Scope and negotiate the agreement
We develop the commercial proposal and lead negotiations around the agreed partnership model. Topics may include revenue sharing, referral attribution, customer ownership, exclusivity, minimum commitments and responsibilities for launch and support. We coordinate with your legal, compliance and product leads so decisions and outstanding requirements stay visible.
Coordinate launch and handover
Once an agreement is signed, we coordinate the commercial work needed to prepare the partnership for launch. That includes agreed responsibilities, supporting materials, launch milestones and the handover of contacts and deal documents. Your teams retain responsibility for technical implementation and approvals. Ongoing partner management stays with your team unless separately scoped.
Weekly pipeline reviews distinguish outreach, qualified opportunities, proposals, signed agreements and launched partners. Once a partner is live, reporting should separately show activated customers or merchants, payment volume and revenue.
See our business development consulting services for the broader deliverables and reporting.
Senior partnership leadership and execution
Every engagement is run by a senior partnerships executive who leads partner strategy, executive conversations and commercial negotiations. That ownership continues through agreement and launch coordination.
A supporting team handles research, materials, scheduling and follow-up. Your team receives regular pipeline updates with clear next steps, outstanding decisions and an owner for each opportunity.
This engagement fits a payments company with a clear product, a defined growth priority and internal capacity to evaluate and launch partnerships. We can lead a specific distribution initiative alongside your business development team. If you need senior ownership across a broader mandate, our fractional head of partnerships service explains that structure.
Payments partnership development FAQs
What is payments partnership development?
Payments partnership development is the work of identifying, negotiating and preparing commercial relationships that help a payments company reach customers through another business. It includes partner selection, executive outreach, qualification, commercial terms and launch coordination. Depending on the product, the relationship may involve referrals, resale or embedded distribution.
Can you help us find ISV and embedded payments partners?
Yes. We evaluate software companies and platforms based on their customers, product fit, existing provider relationships, economics and ability to launch. An ISV is a type of partner; embedded payments describes how payment capabilities are offered within a product. An ISV relationship can use an embedded model or a referral arrangement.
Can you work alongside our internal business development team?
Yes. Outsourced payments business development can support a defined product, market or partner category while your internal team manages other priorities. We agree on account ownership, decision authority and reporting at the start so both teams know who leads each relationship and when internal specialists should participate.
Who handles integrations and compliance approvals?
Your product, engineering, legal, compliance and risk teams own the relevant implementation decisions and approvals. Schwaner & Co. coordinates the commercial requirements, documents dependencies and keeps the partner discussion moving. The responsibilities for integration, onboarding, servicing and ongoing management are agreed before launch.
How long does it take to launch a payments partnership?
Timing depends on the partnership model, the partner's priorities, technical work and approval requirements. We establish milestones after discovery and track progress against them. A signed agreement, a launched partner and a customer generating payment activity are separate milestones; the timeline should make each one clear.
How are payments partnership engagements priced?
Schwaner & Co. works on a monthly retainer plus a performance fee on closed partnerships. The scope reflects the products, partner categories and work involved. We agree on responsibilities, commercial terms and how a closed partnership is defined before the engagement begins.
Discuss your payments partnership goals
Tell us about your product, the customers you want to reach and the growth priority you want partnerships to support. We will prepare an initial map of eight to ten potential partners for one product and use a 20-minute conversation to discuss where there may be a fit.