Today in B2B: How Payments Automation Reduces Errors

Today in B2B payments, Cellulant expands its payments platform into Ghana, and Pax8 is expanding its SMB tech platform thanks to a $185 million fundraising round. Plus, FinTechs are thinking big in their quest to help African SMBs and Priority Technology Holdings partners with Century Bank.

Pax8 Notches $185M to Expand SMB Tech Platform

Cloud commerce marketplace Pax8 brought in $185 million in a funding round that raises the company’s valuation to $1.7 billion, according to a Monday (April 11) press release.

New investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led Pax8’s funding effort, with participation from existing investors Catalyst Investors, Sageview Capital, Blue Cloud Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures. Kristin Bannon, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the Pax8 board of directors.

Payments Automation Reduces Errors, Delays in B2B Transactions

The payments delays and errors common in B2B transactions stem from many sources, but a leading factor is a reliance on manual payments processes such as checks, which can cause anything from typos to post office delays to improper data entry, according to the AP Automation Tracker, a PYMNTS and Beanworks collaboration.

Payments digitization can go a long way toward reducing delays and minimizing errors by delegating day-to-day processes such as payables, invoice processing and record keeping to artificial intelligence-based solutions, which reduce the capacity for human error and accelerate complex calculations that tend to be tedious and time-consuming for human accountants.

Priority Partners with Century Bank on B2B Payment Solutions

Payments technology firm Priority Technology Holdings announced a partnership with full-service New Mexico and Texas community bank Century Bank that will give Century customers access to Priority’s CPX accounts payable (AP) solution, according to a Monday (April 11) joint press release.

CPX eliminates manual processes and boosts how much revenue customers get from buyers through their virtual cards. The platform also speeds up payments and manages suppliers’ transaction costs.

Businesses Turn from Tech Triage to Upgrades

Running a baseball stadium demands technology that can be all things to all fans. That means systems that support contactless payments that are flexible and scalable, that can maximize productivity, and that can handle both retail merchandizing and food and beverage sales.

Software and payments provider SpotOn knows these needs well — 56% of the ballparks in Major League Baseball rely on its services to meet their customers’ demands. SpotOn’s technology encompasses all business sizes and many business types, including restaurants and hospitality, retail, enterprise and automotive.

Beyond the point-of-sale aspects that their customers will see, businesses also need reporting that will give them visibility into what is happening in the business. Businesses can leverage this data to make changes as necessary.

FinTechs Think Big to Help Africa’s SMBs Find Working Capital

There’s been an increase in business-to-business (B2B) payments in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — a 10% year-over-year growth, according to data from McKinsey.

B2B payments remain a challenge for many small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets, including Africa, given the high cost involved in processing invoices — about $16 per every invoice processed — and how many local companies still use the traditionally manual and time-consuming process of reconciling incoming payments to invoice data.

African Payments Company Cellulant Expands Its Business Platform Into Ghana

Cellulant has debuted a new digital pay platform, Tingg, which will help businesses and customers to make payments, at a time when 38.9% of the Ghana population over 15 years old has a mobile money account.

Recently, the Central Bank of Ghana has issued Cellulant a Payment Services Provider license, letting the company aggregate merchant services, process financial services, acquire merchants, deploy POS systems and aggregate payments for banks and institutions alongside the general public.