PayPal, BILL, Intuit Execs on Digital Business Growth Financing

The panel discussion, featuring Ratinder Bedi of PayPal, Mary Kay Bowman of BILL, and David Hahn of Intuit, underscored a fundamental shift in how growth is financed. No longer are discrete loans or payment processing services sufficient. The executives emphasized that the future lies in seamlessly integrated ecosystems where payments infrastructure, credit assessment, and business management software converge. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this integration is critical for managing cash flow, the lifeblood of any scaling business.

Ratinder Bedi, PayPal’s Senior Vice President & Global Chief Credit Officer, highlighted the evolution of credit from a standalone product to an embedded feature within broader commerce platforms. This approach allows businesses to access capital precisely when and where they need it—such as at the point of sale or within an invoicing workflow. Similarly, Mary Kay Bowman, BILL’s Executive Vice President & General Manager of Payments & Financial Services, discussed how automating accounts payable and receivable creates a rich data trail. This data, in turn, can be leveraged to offer more tailored and timely financing options to businesses, moving beyond traditional credit scores.

A central theme from the San Francisco event was the paramount role of data in enabling ‘smart’ scaling. David Hahn, Intuit’s General Manager & Executive Vice President of Product, articulated how platforms that serve as the central hub for a business’s financial operations—like Intuit’s QuickBooks—gain unparalleled insight into company health. This deep data allows for predictive analytics, identifying which businesses are primed for growth and what type of financial support they require before a cash crunch occurs.

This data-driven model represents a significant departure from traditional financing. As explained by the panelists, lenders and service providers like PayPal, BILL, and Intuit can now assess risk based on real-time business performance metrics—such as revenue trends, invoice payment history, and even customer retention rates—rather than relying solely on historical financial statements or personal credit. This enables more agile and precise capital allocation, allowing promising businesses to secure funding that might be denied through conventional channels. The executives agreed that this agility is non-negotiable in the current economic climate, where market conditions can shift rapidly.

The discussion moderated by Diksha Gera repeatedly returned to the concept of embedded finance as a tool for resilience. In a competitive market, businesses cannot afford operational friction. The solution, championed by all three companies, is to bake financial services directly into the software tools businesses use daily. For Intuit, this means offering capital within its accounting software. For BILL, it’s providing payment solutions inside its spend management platform. For PayPal, it’s integrating credit offerings into its vast merchant and consumer payment networks.

This embedded approach does more than just streamline operations; it fundamentally changes the growth trajectory for SMEs. By reducing the time spent on administrative tasks and improving access to working capital, business leaders can refocus their energy on core activities like product development, marketing, and customer acquisition. The panel concluded that the companies best positioned to thrive are those that leverage these integrated digital ecosystems to become more efficient, data-aware, and financially agile. The insights from Ratinder Bedi, Mary Kay Bowman, and David Hahn collectively painted a picture of a financial services landscape where technology providers are essential partners in business growth, not just vendors.