Barclays Taps B2B Payment Startup For Accelerator

Barclays recently announced the companies picked for its Tel Aviv accelerator program, according to reports, and while officials at the banks touted a focus on payments security, the bank has also targeted corporate payments in its startup batch.

Of the 2,000 startups that applied to join the Barclays Accelerator program, just 40 were accepted, the bank’s head of open innovation, Arian Lewis, recently told Finance Magnates. And among those selected is a B2B payments company, the outlet said on Monday (May 23) following a visit to the launch of the Accelerator program in Tel Aviv.

Ten startups were chosen for the Tel Aviv Accelerator, according to reports, from Israel and elsewhere. Among them is B2B Pay, which provides free International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) for companies exporting into Europe.

Its founder, Neil Ambikar, based in New Zealand, launched the company after witnessing the struggle of small pharmaceutical companies in India to successfully export across borders without losing significant funds due to foreign exchange conversion rates, cross-border payment and other transaction fees.

B2B Pay also facilitates the collection of payments across 34 nations on the continent, reports said, for costs up to 80 percent cheaper than traditional service providers offer.

Barclays has been focusing on B2B payments in recent weeks, having rolled out a new offering for its corporate clients to access mobile banking and payment solutions earlier this month.

FinTech company Bottomline Technologies is collaborating with Barclays to introduce a mobile B2B payment tool supported by the bank’s mobile payment solution, Paym, and its Pingit mobile payment solution. The offering allows users to send and receive payments without having to know the bank account details of the other side of the transaction.

In announcing the partnership, Bottomline Technologies Product Marketing Manager Richard Ransom said the mobile B2B payments tool is expected to take off in certain verticals.

“This fully automated solution can be especially attractive to businesses, such as those in the utility and insurance sectors, that still rely on high volumes of costly check generation,” he said.