Today in B2B: How Finance Officials Overcome Billing Disputes; Flipkart, Rupifi Team on Embedded BNPL

Today in B2B payments: VertoFX expands currency convertibility and cross-border payments, and Flipkart and Rupifi collaborate on an embedded buy now, pay later offering for micro-, small and medium-sized businesses. Plus, Kroger debuts a private marketplace, and billing disputes are among finance officials’ greatest challenges.

Flipkart, Rupifi Team on Embedded BNPL for MSMBs

Indian lending FinTech company Rupifi and Indian digital B2B marketplace Flipkart Wholesale are teaming up on an embedded buy now, pay later (BNPL) initiative for the micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMBs) on Flipkart’s eCommerce platform.

The partnership gives family-owned shops and MSMBs digital credit with flexible repayment terms and transparent pricing, according to the joint announcement on Wednesday (Oct. 20).

55% of Finance Officials Say Billing Disputes Are Among Their Greatest Challenges

Recent PYMNTS research shows that 55% of finance officials see billing disputes as among their greatest challenges, according to the Banking as a Service Playbook, a PYMNTS collaboration with Transcard.

Ninety-four percent of company finance officials must manually input at least some invoice or billing information, which can lead to billing errors, disputes and late payments as well as wasted employees’ work hours. Nearly every respondent in the survey said that disputes contribute to late payments.

B2B Marketplace VertoFX: From Currency Convertibility to Cross-Border Payments in Emerging Markets

When launching in 2019, B2B payments platform VertoFX Co-founders Ola Oyetayo and Anthony Oduwole focused on the challenge businesses in Nigeria had in converting the local naira currency to a foreign one, while minimizing FX volatility, reducing settlement times and processing transactions.

Today, the London- and Nigeria-based company, which is also a U.K.-regulated electronic money institution, facilitates payments for banks and businesses across multiple foreign currencies for about 2,000 companies in roughly 25 countries. The average transaction value on the platform is about $20,000 to $30,000, and its clients range from large enterprises to SMBs.

Kroger Launches Private Marketplace for Brands to Reach Consumers

Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) this week debuted a private programmatic advertising marketplace called Kroger Private Marketplace for brands and marketers of consumer packaged goods (CPGs).

Kroger Private Marketplace will allow both CPG brands and ad agencies to apply audience data to campaigns in various ad-buying platforms and tailor their audiences to match campaign objectives with targeting science to “pre-optimize” the audience.