In this announcement at businesswire we see that Emburse, a 2014 startup out of Los Angeles that specializes in expense management and accounts payable automation, is launching new payables to be integrated with their existing Chrome River Invoice product.
The new solution is called Emburse Pay – B2B Payments, and adds automated ACH, check, and virtual card processing through a partnership with WEX. Readers will have read about how the pandemic has placed the automation of financial operations at the forefront of many corporates’ priority lists, but apparently, adoption has a long way to go.
“Despite the massive push toward digital transformation during the pandemic, most organizations continue to pay vendors using physical checks. In addition to it being an incredibly inefficient and error-prone process, finance teams are missing out on huge cost-saving opportunities through early payment discounts and card rebates,” said Rajeev Subramanyam, general manager of Emburse Pay. “Our Emburse Pay suite of solutions was designed to streamline what has traditionally been a time-consuming and inefficient process – manually reconciling corporate payments. In B2B Payments, we have taken what has traditionally been a very cumbersome process and integrated it into our AP solutions’ workflow.”
So the many collaborations continue as fintechs further realize the value of integrated services and corporates recognize how they can benefit through convergence and improved delivery of many existing capabilities. We have been pointing this out to members through reports for some time, and don’t expect anything but continued expansion of digital operations.
WEX is more broadly known for fuel cards but has been expanding its footprint into payables automation for a few years now, using both direct distribution and partnerships with other service providers. The market for electronic payables solutions remains quite large, as millions of checks will be disappearing from day-to-day operations during the next five years.
‘“Adding Emburse Pay – B2B Payments to Chrome River Invoice was a natural next step for us. After seeing the benefits of increased efficiency and error-free payment processing, we were excited to roll out B2B Payments and complete the AP lifecycle in an automated fashion,” said Marissa Navarro, controller at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP.’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group