Today in B2B: GrowSari Grows Its Filipino Empire With $77M Funding Round; Corcentric Talks B2B Payments Transparency

Today in B2B payments, GrowSari expands its B2B suite of offerings across the Philippines, while Corcentric discusses the benefits of adding transparency to the payments process in the healthcare and insurance sectors.

GrowSari Raises $77M to Expand in Philippines

Philippines-based B2B platform GrowSari has raised $77.5 million in a new funding round to help fuel its expansion across the nation. Founded in 2016 and based in Manila, GrowSari helps small physical retail stores, neighborhood shops (otherwise known as sari-sari stores), market eateries (carinderia) and pharmacies provide expanded services and products. It offers services that include bill payments, telco reloads and wallet top-ups, in addition to retail merchandise and pharmaceuticals to more than 100,000 stores in several hundred communities.

Tackling Transparency Problems Improves B2B Payments in Healthcare, Insurance

Healthcare, insurance and financial services are among the largest verticals in the U.S., tied to trillions of dollars of transaction flows. Corcentric CEO Matt Clark told PYMNTS in an interview that moving those industries into the digital age requires a mixture of technology, automating manual processes and examining the back-office functions that can boost cash on the balance sheet.

Digitization, Automated AP Can Prevent B2B Payments Fraud

The escalating number and size of fraud attacks perpetrated by cybercriminals are especially costly to organizations when they impact B2B payments, and fraud-related costs amount to 2% to 5% of annual revenues, as reported in the “FinTech Risk Management Playbook: Combating B2B Payments Fraud,” a PYMNTS and nsKnox collaboration. Cybercriminals now employ sophisticated, data-driven methods, cutting-edge technology and psychological tactics to trick employees and compromise businesses’ trusted partners to get access to firms’ financial information and accounting systems.