As we have been pointing out recently in both proprietary member research as well as various postings here and social media, the fintech investment environment remains flush, particularly with the growing awareness of how latest gen tech can impact financial operations and other corporate use cases. Corporate and general business spending activity (down to the small business segments) generally outweighs consumer equivalencies by 2X. However, the B2B solution sets are more complicated and time to market for revenue recognition is extended, therefore it has taken awhile for the use cases to gain enthusiastic adoption. That is changing quite readily. In this particular case, which we picked up on at the Cision newswire, a New York-based fintech called Boost Payment Solutions received a funding round to continue on their path of facilitating better buyer/supplier experiences in the B2B virtual card space.
‘Boost Payment Solutions, the leader in commercial card optimization, today announced its closing of $12 million in a Series B equity and venture debt funding round led by Mosaik Partners and North Atlantic Capital. The proceeds will be used to raise the company’s profile domestically and internationally across multiple verticals, including healthcare, telecom, freight & logistics, media, transportation, real estate and others…Boost will also be expanding its marketing, product, support and business development teams in the U.S. and abroad. Boost is currently operational in the U.S., Canada, Europe, UAE, Australia, Brazil, and through its previously announced alliance with Mastercard, the Caribbean and other Latin American markets.’
In a recently released report titled Supplier Enablement: Get More Flexible and Technical, we review the need for issuing banks to expand beyond traditional pricing and virtual card payments execution to gain more interest and leverage in onboarding suppliers. We also highlight Boost’s role in helping to automate virtual card usage processes, removing barriers to expanded adoption of this growing e-payment tool. While taking a supplier-centric role in acquiring, the company also facilitates a better front end experience for the buyer side of the virtual transaction, providing flexible issuer tools for pricing, payment initiation and reporting.
So again, although it has taken it has taken some time for the digital revolution to hit corporate banking use cases, it is now in full development and expansion mode.
‘David Coit, founder and managing director of North Atlantic Capital, commented, “We have a long and successful history of investing in B2B payments companies and as soon as we met the Boost team and learned about their innovative approach to solving the pain points often associated with today’s electronic B2B payments, we knew we wanted to partner with the company.” ‘
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
