Ixaris Taps Visa To Target B2B Payments In Travel

B2B payments firm Ixaris is collaborating with Visa Europe to introduce new solutions to the travel industry, the company said in a press release Tuesday (November 6).

As part of its effort to promote use of virtual payments in the B2B market, Ixaris is turning its attention to the travel industry to push for adoption of digital B2B payment solutions. Its work with Visa Europe will allow Ixaris to provide virtual cards to companies in the online travel industry.

“We’re delighted to signal our intent to further challenge in the growing travel payments market with the support of Visa, whose backing is a strong endorsement of our travel strategy,” said Ixaris CEO Aran Brown in a statement. “We’re pleased that Visa Europe has cemented its confidence in our market-leading payments technology. Together we bring a range of payment solutions that offer best-in-class options for the most important travel use cases.”

Visa Business Solutions executive director Helen Jones added that Visa is “committed to helping businesses of all sizes to make simple, secure and seamless payments wherever possible. By working with Ixaris to provide virtual cards to the online travel agency industry, we can help Ixaris’ customers remove friction from a crucial stage of their business operations,” Jones said.

In its announcement, Ixaris highlighted its own research that found online travel agencies spend, on average, 20 percent of gross profits on manual payment processes. While 84 percent of these online travel agencies agree that payments is a strategic priority, more than one-third are not sure how much payments are actually costing them.

Ixaris did not elaborate on exactly how Visa Europe will participate in the company’s B2B payments services for the travel sector.

In 2016 Ixaris restructured and spun off its B2B payments unit, formerly known as Ixaris Technologies, with sister firm EntroPay remaining separate to provide virtual card solutions for small businesses and consumers.

That same year, Ixaris also announced a partnership with Amadeus to develop a B2B virtual cards for the online travel agency space.