CPO Rising’s P2P Technology Round-Up returns today with another assortment of ePayables, P2P and B2B payment solution provider news and updates from the past month.
CDPQ Leads $300 Million Growth Equity Investment in AvidXchange
AvidXchange, a leading financial technology provider of accounts payable and payment automation, recently announced the signing of $300 million in financing, including a $100 million growth equity investment from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). CDPQ helped lead this round of financing in concert with a wider group of partners (including MasterCard, Temasek, and Peter Thiel). CDPQ is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds for public and para-public pension and insurance plans and will support AvidXchange as it seeks to increase its product offering and its presence across the industry. “With a strong management team and a proven business model, AvidXchange is exactly the kind of financial technology company that CDPQ is seeking to invest in,” said Aviva Shneider, Vice-President and Co-Head, Direct Private Equity, U.S. and Latin America, at CDPQ. “AvidXchange delivers a complete and simple invoice workflow and B2B payment management solution that helps medium-sized businesses solve complex multi-step processes. As an industry leader in electronic business payments, AvidXchange has seen strong adoption and is ideally positioned to grow and to succeed today and in the economy of the future.” CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, and real estate, and this transaction adds to CDPQ’s private equity investments in the fintech sector.
AvidXchange Announces Strategic Partnership with MasterCard
On the heels of its recently secured $300 million in financing, AvidXchange has announced a new partnership with MasterCard to deliver accounts payable and payments automation to small and midsize companies. This partnership will leverage AvidXchange’s AP and payment automation solutions, and MasterCard’s commercial payment solutions to grow their business within mid-market enterprises. MasterCard’s solution, MasterCard B2B Hub, will be delivered through card issuers as an end-to-end automated solution for companies’ payment needs. AvidXchange will serve as the execution partner for MasterCard’s solution launch. The MasterCard B2B Hub will be made available to companies in the United States later this year, through the companies’ bank or commercial card issuer. AvidXchange will offer other program options for banks who choose not utilize their own card payment capabilities with the MasterCard B2B Hub. MasterCard, it should be noted, is a part of the group of partners to make the large investment into AvidXchange.
BMO Announces Launch of New Suite of Commercial Cards for Customers
The Ardent analyst team, recently spoke with Steve Pedersen, Head of North American Corporate Credit Card Products at BMO Financial Group, to discuss the launch of their new suite of Commercial MasterCard offerings. BMO, which is a highly diversified financial services provide based in Canada, and their new suite of products offers a range of reward benefits, including a 1 per cent CashBack option. Each card looks to streamline the back-end processes and simplify the AP process while also giving customers more visibility into spend and data analysis. Clients also have access to BMO Spend Dynamics, an online card program management and reporting tool that provides control and visibility into commercial card spend. Commercial MasterCards from BMO now include five unique offerings tailored to the specific requirements of organizations:
- BMO Commercial MasterCard: For organizations that do not require a rewards program
- BMO CashBack Commercial MasterCard: This option allows organizations to earn 1 per cent unlimited CashBack – with no cap – on all eligible purchases credited to their account every January
- BMO AIR MILES Commercial MasterCard: This option organizations can earn 1 AIR MILES reward mile on every $20 of eligible purchases
- BMO Not-for-Profit Commercial MasterCard: This option is available for not-for-profit organizations only
- BMO U.S. Dollar Commercial MasterCard: This option is for employees who travel frequently to the U.S. or purchase products and services from U.S. suppliers and will help manage exposure to exchange rate fluctuations and avoid the foreign exchange mark-up fee
With this new product launch in the US and Canada, BMO wanted to focus on giving more convenient and straightforward payment solution choices to their customers. After many discussions with customers, Pedersen said, there was a real need and desire for things to become simpler. Pedersen also mentioned that their goal is to remain product agnostic in their discussions with potential clients, and to have much more consultative discussions with their customers to help them make the right decision for their needs.
Coupa Launches Automated Global Supplier Payment Solution
Coupa, the cloud-based spend management software company, has recently announced the launch of Coupa Payments, which will digitize supplier payments and automate related payment processes through a cloud-based e-payables solution. Electronic payments should enable suppliers of any size or location to receive funds faster. It will also allow customers to enjoy discounted payment amounts. The solution provides visibility across the entire payment lifecycle through a standardized payments workflow process. Earlier in May, Coupa announced a new certification program (CoupaLink) that would provide their customers a larger set of software partners that would be able to connect third-party applications to the Coupa platform faster. The Coupa Payments solution will leverage the CoupaLink app from Nvoicepay, the accounts payable automation software company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, to make supplier invoices through the same process flow.
Coupa Announces Availability of InvoiceSmash Application
Coupa also recently announced the general availability of a new unified application within its spend management platform called InvoiceSmash. The application will help customers to process supplier invoices faster, easier, and cheaper by converting emailed invoice attachments into field formats required for the buyer’s AP process. The application will also look to improve compliance, data quality, and supplier participation. The solution offers closed-loop learning capabilities that can detect supplier invoice format changes. It can also automatically create smarter templates for any future invoices.
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P2P Technology Round-Up – May 18, 2017
