For those not familiar with all the fintechs in the B2B payments space, let’s just say that there are many. This particular spot appears in Forbes, and highlights comments from a company called Currency (Currency Capital), which is a mature startup based in Los Angeles that offers cash cycle technology for merchant payments acceptance and client financing. It appears that the company began as an equipment leasing/financing firm and later expanded into broader payments acceptance and lending technology for specific high ticket verticals.
“While numerous solutions have emerged supporting Business to Consumer (B2C) payments, not as many innovative ideas have been brought to the market for B2B payments. To learn more about why this might be the case, we sat down with Jordan Weber, the Chief of Staff at Currency. A subject matter expert when it comes to the B2B payments industry, Weber discusses some of the most prominent pain points in the industry….Currency, a company that offers transactions as a service, specializes in large transactions and believes that “buying a bulldozer should be as easy as buying a book.” What attracted Weber to the B2B payments industry was the chance to unlock opportunity for people in an area of current inefficiency… Weber says that one of the most significant problems in the industry is that “nearly 70% of payments are still processed by paper check. These traditional payment methods along with manual paper invoicing make the process inefficient and costly.”
While we don’t know if the 70% is correct, (I’m thinking it may be closer to 50%), the point remains; a point which we have detailed in various member reports, including the recent Supplier Enablement: Get More Flexible and Technical, in which a major point is to make things easier for both buyers and suppliers to implement e-payments. Although we have no details on the CurrencyPay solution mentioned, it appears to be a cloud service that takes the business acceptance processing pain away, offering both payer choice and financing options.
“The false dichotomy of choosing between financing and other payment methods is frustrating for business owners, especially when big-ticket purchases are involved. Businesses should be able to have both, which is why CurrencyPay, a product of Currency, employs technology that brings many features into one platform.”
We have seen an increasing interest in various forms of cash cycle solutions ‘as-a-service”. There is also a growing set of solutions that offer businesses the option to choose financing terms during the buying process. One that comes to mind is Amex, which offers ‘Pay Over Time’ to business card holders, and another is Fundbox. We’ll keep tracking to see how this opportunity expands in the eCommerce world that is re-shaping B2B.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service
