The theme of cash cycle digitalization continues with this latest announced product enhancement from PayMate, the fintech specializing in internet-based services. The piece appears in BW Businessworld and discusses the added features to the full stack PayMate B2B platform, which is being offered in India. Mercator Advisory Group has written about procure-to-pay becoming a converged offering and this is another example of the accelerating trend in these pandemic days, where companies are focusing on supply chain management and digital processes.
‘The new version of the PayMate platform will add further value to supply chains by allowing Enterprises to extend payables using commercial cards & SMEs to receive early payments towards outstanding invoices via discounting where cashflow for SME is the lifeblood, especially in these challenging times. PayMate’s proprietary enhanced cloud-based platform will automate and digitize the entire procurement to the payment process, saving over 70% time, resources, and costs for businesses. Using the full-stack platform will enable businesses to become more efficient, allowing them to gain greater control and transparency over their finances:’
We have not received a briefing but it appears that the platform offers a couple of new features. One is the ability to pay with commercial cards, which has never been a priority in India until the last couple of years. Card rail payments offer the inherent credit facility, which extends DPO for the buyer and simultaneously reduces DSO for suppliers at a discount.
This has become increasingly popular during the pandemic as many more suppliers are willing to accept cards. The other new addition is an invoice discounting marketplace, which suggests multiple funders for supplier selected invoices, which could be either receivables financing or reverse factoring, depending upon the setup.
‘Speaking on the upgraded PayMate platform, Mr. Ajay Adiseshann, Founder & CEO, PayMate adds, “With a full-stack supply chain digitization offering, PayMate is proud to bring greater value to our customers and channel partners…. He further adds, “According to Atradius survey’20, there is a significant increase in late payments from B2B customers. An average of 66% of the total value of B2B invoices was overdue. In India, invoices were overdue for over 90 days. This puts SMBs in a precarious situation where they find it tough to sustain themselves. By using our platform’s Invoice discounting layer, SMBs will be able to sustain themselves through these troubles COVID times by simply offering discounts on their overdue invoices.” ‘
We’ll keep you posted on developments in the space.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group