The ambition of a software company used to be to own a workflow. The next twenty years belong to the companies that own the rail — the payments, data and identity layer others build on top of.
The evidence
Across a year of editions, one pattern recurred: the company closest to the transaction captured the margin, then the dependency.
- Vertical SaaS leaders shipping their own payments platforms
- Embedded finance moving from feature to primary margin engine
- Usage displacing the seat as the unit of value
The workflow is where you start. The rail is where you become impossible to remove.
Elena Cho · Ledgerbase
The score
Two of the five tracked leaders shipped payments platforms this quarter. The rail thesis is holding.
Note
Reviewed at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months against market evidence.
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The Rail Thesis