Nium and Thredd Launch APAC Virtual Card Partnership

Cross-border payments platform Nium and payments processor Thredd have expanded their partnership.

As Thredd said in a Wednesday (April 24) news release, this expansion will allow Nium issue virtual cards in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

“APAC presents a substantial opportunity for global travel intermediaries that will in turn spur robust competition, a boon for consumers, and accelerated growth for the global travel ecosystem” Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy said.

“Fuelling this unmistakeable growth is the rise of innovative B2B travel payment solutions, like that offered by Nium. Our long-standing collaboration is a great example of how fintech partnerships are propelling other industries forward,” he added.

The expansion, the company said, is aimed at pending booms in both global B2B travel transaction volumes and the APAC region’s rise as the fastest growing market.

“By integrating Thredd APIs into its single platform for instant global payments, Nium has been able speed up transactions to 200 milliseconds when issuing and loading virtual cards in nearly 30 countries worldwide,” the release said.

PYMNTS spoke recently with Edwin Poot and Jonathan Vaux, the global chief technology officer and head of propositions and partnerships, respectively, at Thredd, on the ways recent innovations are set to revolutionize the way businesses deal with travel expenditures.

As that report noted, traditional methods involving manual data entry and paper receipts are being replaced by digital solutions that automatically capture and categorize expenses. This both speeds up reimbursement times and reduces the risk of human error.

“As with every technology company, we’re at the forefront of using tech ourselves and are using more solutions like automated expense applications, automated receipt scanning and categorization, etc.,” said Poot, adding that in spite of the rise of mobile-centric tools for receipt scanning and categorization, certain challenges around compliance and cost control remain.

And Vaux stressed that while corporate solutions have progressed, they still often lag consumer-centric solutions. Many employees still resort to personal tools for their travel needs, a sign of a gap between corporate and consumer experiences.

“I find myself using technology more and more, but the experience is still disjointed and not consolidated,” Vaux said.

Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found a strong correlation between companies and industries enjoying high operational efficiency and virtual card usage.

“Virtual cards seem to increase the operational efficiency of Growth Corporates, as survey data shows a strong correlation between high operational efficiency for companies and industries that use this solution,” PYMNTS wrote last year.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.