An interview summary posted by The Paypers involves the CEO of a UK-based payments startup called Berg Money. The article suggests a PaaS model with cross-border payments Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) scenarios as the target market, however the website indicates a somewhat broader offer that includes loans, which we assume if for payments liquidity and limited supply chain finance offers.
B2B Payments Playing Catch Up
In any event, the CEO responds to questions with many of the things that we have been pointing out for commercial & enterprise payments over the past few years. This includes the B2B payments space playing catch up for the overall end-to-end experience, which we have often attributed to two main factors—consumer experiences are easier to create and monetize versus B2B flows and the neobanks and fintechs needed time to figure out the more complex flows for commercial business situations.
Other points made drift into similar ones that readers have been seeing on these pages for quite some time vis-à-vis cross-border payments. These include the expense involved, the lack of transparency, along with a growing demand for mobility in the transaction delivery. Based on recent research companies lose 4-5% of their revenues due to payment inefficiencies and fragmentation.
Use Cases that SMEs Experience
Reading further the piece goes into the typical use cases that SMEs experience in cross-border transactions. These are needs such as multiple currencies to settle between buyers and suppliers in local money, the rise of B2B eCommerce which extends the reach of various products and services into foreign markets, and gig economy payouts as companies hire in remote location for access to certain skillsets.
The CEO goes on to discuss differentiation between this company and competitors, which is the ability to handle the end-to-end experience for SMEs with a higher level of service. He discusses where SME payments may be going and you’ll find a dose of artificial intelligence (AI) as well and distributed ledger technology, for which we have also been calling out in various places, including recent member research. Worth a quick read for those interested in the SME space and cross-border with innovative approaches to payments.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.
