Today in B2B: Fundbox Adds Two New Partners, Hires Chief Product Officer; Small Businesses Need Niche Banking Solutions

Today in B2B payments, Spryker and FarEye team up on last-mile delivery of B2B eCommerce, while CFOs are turning to digitization to help them communicate better with customers and vendors. Plus, Nuula and Even Financial make it easier to search for business loans, and Trax teams with Truckstop.com on supply chain management.

CFOs Turn to Digitization to Improve Customer, Vendor Communications

Chief financial officers (CFOs) expect their businesses to realize several benefits from digitizing payments, such as faster communication and better collaboration with both customer and vendors.

That’s according to “Business Payments Digitization,” a PYMNTS and Corcentric collaboration based on a survey of 400 CFOs who work at firms generating between $400 million and $2 billion in annual revenue. The study found that when it comes to communicating with customers, 65% of the CFOs believe digitization will increase the speed, 54% believe it will introduce new forms of communication and 48% believe it will increase the quality.

They expect similar results with vendors. In fact, 65% of CFOs believe digitization will increase the speed of communication with vendors, 44% believe it will introduce new forms and 48% believe it will increase the quality.

Fundbox Partners With Galileo, MetaBank, Names New Chief Product Officer

Fundbox, a platform that provides working capital for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has announced new partnerships with Galileo Financial Technologies and MetaBank N.A. and the hiring of a new chief product officer.

Fundbox entered into both deals — and made the new hire — to accelerate the development and deployment of new products. Galileo Technologies is an open application programming interface (API) platform used by companies in sectors including digital banking, payments processing and cryptocurrency, according to its website. MetaBank N.A. describes itself as a “financial empowerment company.” The company’s main sectors served are payments, tax services, commercial finance and consumer lending.

Trax, Truckstop.com Partner on Supply Chain Management

Trax, which helps companies manage their shipping spending, and Truckstop.com, which operates a marketplace for shippers and companies with items to move, on Wednesday (June 22) announced a new collaboration they said will help shippers, brokers and carriers work better with each other.

Trax gives shippers visibility into the performance and cost of carriers’ services, while Truckstop provides carriers with onboarding technology and legal compliance based on lane, carrier and region. By working together, the companies aim to provide supply chain information to improve shipper-carrier relationships.

Voice of the CFO: Niche Banking Solutions Needed for Small Businesses That Face Same Old Problems

Speaking as part of PYMNTS’ “Day in the Life of a CFO” series, Deepesh Jain, chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer at Lili, said that while consumers and medium- to large-sized corporations are well-served by banks and FinTechs, small businesses have some unique pain points that are not solved by those organizations.

For example, a traditional bank would give a small business a bank account but would not give them the opportunity to generate an invoice. So, the business would have to buy an invoice-generation tool. They then would have to figure out how to input their bank account details, how to transfer money between accounts and how to keep track of everything.

Nuula, Even Financial Team Up for Business Loan Search Tool

FinTech Nuula is offering a new tool to let owners of small businesses digitally compare more than 30 lenders’ offerings to find the most appropriate personal loans from $5,000 to $250,000 they can use to finance their companies, Nuula announced Tuesday (June 21).

Nuula, which already offers tools to help owners of small businesses with borrowing, is working with embedded financial marketplace Even Financial to provide the new service. The new offering is targeted toward small businesses owners and their “diverse capital needs.” Likely users of the service, according to Nuula, are “sole proprietors, freelancers and consultants.”

Spryker Partners With FarEye on Last-Mile Delivery of B2B eCommerce

FarEye, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform focused on last-mile logistics challenges, and Spryker, a B2B enterprise digital commerce platform, on Tuesday (June 21) announced a partnership to integrate FarEye’s intelligent delivery platform and Spryker’s digital commerce operating system.

Through the new partnership, merchants will be able to offer a customer experience that can be closely tweaked at every point, from initiating a purchase to receiving a delivery, according to the announcement. Between FarEye and Spryker, the companies serve businesses including “big & bulky,” manufacturing, grocery, industrial machinery, hardware, electronics and marketplaces.