The B2B financing platform

B2B commerce is vastly larger than B2C and for too long, B2B payments have been characterised by laborious paper-intensive payment processes that consumers have forgotten.

Consumer fintech has witnessed big winners in BNPL because of the digital checkout and seamless one-click nature of payments. Yet, most B2B transactions do not live online and there is no checkout.

With c.$120 trillion in B2B payments made globally every year, digital payments still considerably lag the B2C market. Before the pandemic, around 33% of B2B expenditure was electronic, compared to around 70% of B2C expenditure. In the US alone, cheques still account for half of the $25 trillion in B2B payments every year.

Over the next decade, B2B payments will see more transactions move onto digital payment rails, more tools to assist cash flow management and more friction removed.

For SMEs, Playter allows businesses to take control of payment terms. This means that they can spread the cost of software, agency fees, rent, marketing, and many more payments over 6 or 12 months.

“For SMEs, the ability to take advantage of annual discounts on software as well as smoothing out cashflow can be invaluable in tougher times. Playter doesn’t just help businesses with cash flow, it also helps redistribute liquidity, allowing businesses to invest in high growth areas such as marketing, hiring and development.” Jamie Beaumont.

Bringing trust to P2P marketplaces

Consumers can find anything they can think of in P2P marketplaces – yet finding a place where you can truly trust the other party is still difficult.

The biggest problem in the P2P payment market is a lack of trust. Most transactions still happen offline, online wallets are quick but not safe, and traditional escrow is document-heavy and designed for large transactions.

Enter Trustap:

– They manage the entire process of the transaction
– The resolution process is preventative, not reactive like many incumbents
– Their APIs are built to seamlessly integrate with existing marketplaces and other platforms

Buyers can track the transaction across each step of the journey with funds held securely and not released until the milestones are complete, with sellers getting transparency over where funds are being sent, verification of the buyer’s identity and options to collect and ship items.

A beautifully designed simple to use product – customers verified in seconds.

It is clear to everyone that post the financial crisis in 2008, there has been a wave of creative destruction to the banking & financial services industry.

Running in parallel to this was the rise of the sharing and on-demand economy powered by smartphone adoption in hypergrowth. Knowing your customer and correctly verifying them seamlessly through great customer experience is a vital service for businesses.

The ability to accurately verify identity alongside a transaction is key to detecting and preventing fraud, as well as a legal obligation for financial services. KYC (know your customer), a process that is required to begin a money transfer, can be performed in a bricks & mortar location, where they can verify documents and check a driver’s license or passport in person. This requires physical visits when it should be a frictionless process taking seconds online. As banks focus on bringing all of their customers online to level the playing field with the challengers, it’s become a bottleneck.

We love the team’s focus on creating a simple yet highly accurate product. The progress that Colum, James, and Rob have made in the last year has been fantastic and we are looking forward to seeing what happens next.

AQMetrics was founded in 2012 by a blended team with deep experience in delivering regulatory risk and compliance solutions.

AQMetrics recognised that the accepted methods of managing risk and compliance were slow, outmoded and inefficient.

They drew upon the founders’ backgrounds in technology, law and financial services to build a platform that performed markedly better.

AQMetrics was ranked as one of the top 50 European businesses transforming financial services, is looking to double headcount and open an office in mainland Europe on the back of a number of recent big contract wins.

Into Africa: Irish start-up wins funding to lend to emerging markets

Irish fintech start-up Umba, which facilitates micro-loans to emerging economies in Africa, has closed a funding round with two leading Irish venture capital firms that will pave the way for the company to lend up to €1 million a month.

The company, which was started by former Munster rugby professional Barry O’Mahony and co-founder Tiernan Kennedy.

The firm was established to meet the needs of the rapidly-growing African mobile payments and debt market. It already has 170,000 customers in Africa, many of whom lack access to basic banking facilities, but can use umba’s smartphone app as use of the devices grows across the continent.

“Traditional banking doesn’t work in developing markets for a number of reasons. In Kenya, poor transport options, low average incomes and no bank in close proximity are all contributory factors to less than 40 per cent of the population having bank accounts,” Tiernan Kennedy.

With the CR2 software, banking becomes personalised, efficient and instant.

CR2 are proud to work alongside banks in over 60 countries and across 4 continents to make their self-service banking channels the very best they can be. They are based in Dublin, Ireland and have colleagues across a network of offices in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

CR2’s BankWorld is a suite of banking solutions which provides a complete view of each customer’s entire banking relationship. This allows for a powerful level of segmentation, tailored new product and service design, and the delivery of targeted offerings across all channels.

CR2 have been working tirelessly since 1997, and over 100 banks in 60 countries are driving their self-service channels using omnichannel banking software from CR2.