Indonesia’s Paper.id Launches B2B BNPL Tool

The Indonesian B2B invoicing firm Paper.id has launched a buy now, pay later (BNPL) tool aimed to help small businesses recover from COVID-19-related losses.

As Tech in Asia reported Wednesday (Oct. 6), the company’s Get Paid Faster feature lets small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) choose a BNPL option if they need a term extension, letting them extend payments by 30 days instead of paying suppliers right away.

“Based on our own internal data, most SME B2B buyers only have the option of paying their suppliers through cash or bank transfer,” said Yosia Sugialam, CTO and co-founder of Paper.id.

“We unlock more options for the buyer with a BNPL and digital payment options, including credit card, regardless if the supplier actually provides payment terms or not.”

Read more: As Digital Business Payments Become the Norm, New Use Cases Emerge

From a business-to-consumer perspective, BNPL is designed to help shoppers who don’t have the budget for big-ticket purchases in a single payment.

But as TreviPay’s Brandon Spear told PYMNTS in a recent interview, this option can be a game changer in a B2B context, especially for SMBs.

“If your customers are small businesses that are buying 50 widgets once a year, the buy now, pay later option could be really interesting, as the buyer might not have the ability to pay for a single invoice and would want to spread it out,” Spear said, noting BNPL’s potential for allowing for capital purchases by SMBs around the world.

Read more: SoftBank’s Greensill Backing Leads B2B FinTech Funding

Founded in 2016, the Jakarta-based Paper.id bills itself as the first free accounting, invoicing and payments app for SMBs in Indonesia. In 2019, the company announced it was expanding its invoicing services to help these businesses support digitization.

Around that time, the company raised an undisclosed sum from investors at Golden State Ventures and Modalku, and announced it was expanding its offering by collaborating with alternative lenders and financial institutions to give customers more access to funding.