Today in B2B Payments: Firms Launch Tools for Restaurants, SMBs

Today in B2B payments, Walmart announces upcoming changes to its data monetization platform, Toast helps restaurants with catering and wholesale orders, and Nuvei adds a payments interface for businesses of all sizes. Plus, TripActions raises $300 million, while BNP Paribas agrees to buy Kantox.

Walmart to Add Free Basic Package to Data Monetization Platform

About a year after launching Walmart Luminate, a data monetization platform for merchants and suppliers, Walmart has announced that it will make additions to the subscription-based product suite and that it expects to launch a free basic package for suppliers in 2023. The company also announced that over its 11 months, Walmart Luminate has grown its revenue 80% quarter over quarter, increased its customer count and served customers in a variety of categories and sizes.

Toast Adds Catering, Wholesale Order Tools to Platform for Restaurants

Toast, a digital platform for restaurants, has launched a new product that helps restaurants manage catering and wholesale orders as well as in-person, takeout and delivery business. Toast President and Co-Founder Aman Narang said: “Toast Invoicing is another key building block for restaurants to expand their service models and grow their entire business all on one platform with Toast.”

Nuvei Launches Payments Interface for Merchants, Platforms of All Sizes

Payment platform Nuvei has launched a payments interface that’s easy for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to implement and includes enterprise-grade capabilities. Called Nuvei Simply Connect, the product is a software development kit (SDK) solution that is simple to implement. Nuvei Chair and CEO Philip Fayer said: “At Nuvei, we are committed to helping businesses of all sizes around the world deliver unique consumer experiences and accelerate their growth.”

TripActions Raises $300M to Expand Travel, Expense Management Platform

Travel and expense management platform TripActions has raised $300 million in a Series G round and said it will use the new funding to accelerate its global expansion. TripActions CEO and Co-Founder Ariel Cohen said: “The recent funding round shows not only the strength of [TripActions’] business model, but also the value to companies looking to increase savings and enable responsible spending.”

BNP Paribas to Buy B2B FinTech Kantox

BNP Paribas has agreed to buy Kantox, a FinTech working on automating currency risk management, to help add more automation to B2B cross-border work. Kantox Founder Philippe Gelis said: “It is the best of both worlds, the leading software company in the currency management automation category and the leading bank in Europe.”

Tech, Data Help CFOs Prep for Future

At any growth-stage company, there’s a lot of change happening. For chief financial officers (CFOs), that means managing day-to-day change while keeping strategic growth as their North Star, Honor Technology CFO Andrew Steinberg told PYMNTS in an interview.

Building Materials Firm US LBM Enlists Billtrust for AR Automation

Specialty building materials distributor US LBM has selected Billtrust as its enterprise-wide accounts receivable (AR) platform. US LBM Executive Vice President and CFO Pat McGuiness said: “Many of our local divisions have already seen AR automation success with Billtrust, and expanding our collaboration supports our growth strategy while driving substantial operating efficiency and improved cash flow.”

US-Euro Real-Time Payments Launch Expected Before Year-End

Cross-border B2B transactions — done in real time — are on the cusp of being as simple as domestic real-time payments. Russ Waterhouse, executive vice president for product development and strategy at The Clearing House (TCH), told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that the initial forays of the transatlantic instant payment system known as Immediate Cross-Border Payments (IXB) will come through the euro/U.S. dollar corridor within the next few months, possibly as early as their year.

CFOs Zero on on Optimizing the Cash Conversion Cycle

With the digital transformation of corporate finance comes the promise of retiring outmoded approaches to the cash conversion cycle. Corcentric President and Chief Operating Officer Matt Clark told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview that CFOs need to ask themselves “are you optimized in terms of timing your payment strategy, in terms of when you’re paying your suppliers, and then are you optimized in terms of how you’re getting paid by your customers?”

A CFO’s Take on the Hard Work Needed to Clear the ‘IPO-Readiness Bar’

For finance chiefs who are helping prepare their organizations for whatever comes next, it’s good to set the bar high — and the highest target of all is the “IPO-readiness bar.” ExtraHop CFO Matt Parson told PYMNTS in an interview: “It’s good discipline for any business to have, irrespective of whether you’re going to go public or not. A lot of the things that you would do are things that are just good discipline and practice for the business anyway.”

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