India-based startup happay is looking to disrupt the nation’s expense reporting segment. The company has teamed up with RBL Bank to launch a new credit card for business customers that helps organize and automate the expense reporting process.
Happay has launched the happay Business Expense VISA Card, which aids businesses in the expense management process through automated recording, expense classifying and mobile management.
In a press release offered Tuesday (Feb. 24), happay revealed that the card programs comes with a mobile app and web platform through which customers can manage spending and the data that flow in with it. The mobile and web apps offer real-time insight into employee spending, happay said, and facilitates the expense reporting process whether in or out of the office.
For happay CEO and co-founder Ansul Rai, the new expense management solution was part of the company’s efforts to disrupt a stale industry in India. “Business expense management has remained the same for decade,” he said, “and we have been able to bring a change in the system.”
Happay launched a pilot program for the Business Expense VISA Card in several sectors before its hard launch, the company said, adding that the pilot programs “proved to be tremendously beneficial for organizations having a dispersed workforce.”
RBL Bank Senior Vice President and Head of Direct Banking Channels Ritesh Pai said that the new product is not only a development in the expense management industry, but progress in B2B innovation. “In the recent past, there have been several new payment innovations on the B2C front but very little traction on the B2B payments front,” he said. “The core value proposition of this service is that it eases the burden companies place on their employees and accounting departments to cover expense outlays.”
Payments innovation in India overall is beginning to accelerate as customers become mobile and web users at exponentially rising rates. According to a recent report released this month, India’s e-commerce market may surpass brick-and-mortar sales as early as 2019.