BlackBerry Adds T&E To mPayments Strategy

As BlackBerry continues to find a new direction in the market, the company is putting a greater focus on its mobile money transfer tool via the BBM app.

It seems the latest addition to this strategy is expense reporting. BlackBerry announced a new partnership on Friday (April 22) with HotRemit, DigitSecure’s mobile wallet app, in India. BBM now integrates into the solution to facilitate mobile money transfers, while HotRemit provides expense tracking and reporting for consumers, as well as businesses and professionals.

“There is a growing appetite for mobile payment solutions and supporting mobile wallets, and HotRemit is another great example of how we are developing the BBM ecosystem to successfully integrate chat, social and commerce,” said BlackBerry SVP of BBM Matthew Talbot in a statement.

The collaboration could potentially be used for corporate travelers in need of tracking their corporate spending and creating expense reports.

“BBM provides a convenient and instant social platform for money transfers, top-ups and expense tracking to both individuals and organizations,” said DigitSecure Founder and Director Jay Krishna in another statement.

Last year, BlackBerry partnered with PayPal to power BBM money transfers. PayPal’s infrastructure allows BBM users to transfer funds between each other.

While mobile money transfers are typically focused for consumers, BlackBerry has also shaped its corporate strategy to weigh heavily on the enterprise.

Reports in March said the lack of a new device at the Mobile World Congress event suggests BlackBerry could be leaving the consumer hardware space to instead target enterprise software.

The company has struggled since WhatsApp revealed plans to no longer run on BlackBerry devices by the end of the year, with Facebook similarly announcing plans to discontinue support for BlackBerry devices by March’s end.