The freelance market is a tricky one when it comes to payments. The segment often deals with multiple business customers, is often on-the-go, and must overcome the challenge every small business faces of managing cash flow – though with the added stress of dealing with accounts payable alone.
Invoice2go taps into the needs of the micro-business and freelance market – made up of a spectrum of industries, from carpentry to dog walking – with its mobile invoicing solution, a tool that allows these businesses to bill their corporate clients from a mobile device.
But CEO Greg Waldorf told PYMNTS in a recent interview that the businesses using Invoice2go didn’t just want mobile invoicing capabilities, they also needed the ability to get paid. It led Waldorf and Invoice2go to integrate Stripe Connect payment technology into its app, a feature that debuts today (Tuesday, Nov. 3).
“There are millions of people around the world who need invoicing as a way to improve their cash flow,” Waldorf said. “They want to save time, and they want to get paid faster.”
Today’s launch of this payment capability, Waldorf explained, is not only a major step in helping micro businesses and freelancers get paid faster, but it also comes at a time when Invoice2go is hitting new highs in the value of the invoices it processes. According to the company, business customers are now invoicing more than $1 billion every month on the app.
“This is a really big opportunity to move a lot of that invoice value onto our payments side,” Waldorf said.
He added that businesses that already send invoices over the app can now do so with an added button that allows the invoice recipient, who can access a PDF of the bill via email, to click a link that takes them straight to a mobile page where they can input credit card information. That payment then lands straight in a small business or freelancer’s bank account.
For the users of Invoice2go, mobile is crucial, the CEO said. About half of its customers are members of the home and office construction segment – freelance electricians, carpenters and the like. The rest are small businesses that Waldorf described as “mobile-oriented,” the type of freelancers that are frequently traveling to their clients, like dog walkers, disc jockeys or mobile beauty services.
Naturally, mobile billing and payment capabilities are a must for many of these business owners.
“You almost cannot overstate the importance of smartphone adoption around the world,” Waldorf said. “It’s truly changing the lives of small-business people.”
[bctt tweet=”You almost cannot overstate the importance of smartphone adoption around the world”]
Waldorf said that before the capability, some of Invoice2go’s business customers were stuck receiving paper checks in the mail, or physically going to pick up their payment and physically driving to deposit that check in a bank account.
“A lot of small businesses realize that yes, there is a cost of accepting a credit card,” the CEO said. “But when you look at your opportunity costs, if you look at the convenience of getting paid right away, you not only improve your cash flow, but you also grow your business.”
In an announcement of the new solution, Invoice2go points to recent statistics from the Federal Reserve System’s Cash Product Office that found credit and debit cards are the preferred payment method of choice in the U.S. Accepting credit card payments, Waldorf said, means these freelancers and micro businesses can open their doors to new clients by making it easier for them to pay for services.
The Invoice2go CEO explained that the new payment solution is made possible with the help of API payments firm Stripe. In addition to providing technical aspects Invoice2go needed, like mobile statement issuing and mobile refund capabilities, Stripe also has the global reach that Invoice2go will need in the near future.
According to Waldorf, while the payments feature is currently available for U.S. customers – which make up the largest single market for the company – the majority of its users are non-U.S.
“In the next version of this solution, we’ll have the ability to accept multiple currencies,” he said, adding that this will be key to driving adoption from non-U.S. businesses that have this need. For example, a freelancer in the U.K. may need to accept payment in British pounds, euros and Swedish krona.
The plan for global expansion will undoubtedly be helped by the latest funding Invoice2go received, also announced Tuesday. The company secured $15 million in Series C backing led by Ribbit Capital. Waldorf told PYMNTS that the rollout of the new payment solution was the perfect time to take advantage of some attention the company has been getting from investors.
And while Invoice2go will pursue its vision of expanding the mobile B2B payment capability overseas, Waldorf added that on a grander scale, the company’s vision is all about helping small businesses become more sophisticated.
“The funding is a great vote of confidence from investors and allows us to keep executing on our goals to bring small businesses into the world of software,” Waldorf said.
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