iwoca Integrates With Xero For SMB Pay Later Option

iwocaPay will be integrated into Xero’s payment platform, a press release says, which will give small businesses a Pay Later option.

iwocaPay, launched in June 2020 as an invoice payment product, aims to help customers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with cash flow and to get small businesses the ability to pay upfront or spread the cost over 90 days.

The integration will allow iwocaPay to be accessible via Xero, with small business owners able to add it to their Xero invoices to help reconcile them more easily. Customers of those businesses will also gain access to more attractive payment options, the release says.

Lara Gilman, co-lead of iwocaPay, said the company was “proud to be Xero’s first U.K. invoice checkout solution that offers a Pay Later option.”

“Having the flexibility to pay a supplier later is critical in helping small businesses manage cash flow, and iwocaPay provides a better way to offer that flexibility,” she said, according to the release. “We’re delighted that Xero customers now have the option to include iwocaPay on any invoice. Suppliers can more easily offer business customers the extended payment terms they need, without carrying the credit or late payment risk.”

She said the company’s vision was “for our invoice checkout solution to be available to the entire ecosystem of FinTechs, brokers, accountants and bookkeeping platforms.”

“Cash flow is the number-one reason small businesses fail,” Michael Green, director of partnerships, Xero U.K. and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said. “Interruptions in payments can have a devastating impact on the survival of a business. So it’s great to see tools like iwocaPay easing this burden, especially at this difficult time.”

Last year, iwoca debuted its OpenLending platform, which purports to bring together businesses and FinTechs to help with spreading iwoca’s lending abilities across the U.K. In March of last year, there were already 20 partners, including Xero as well as mobile app Monese, that had signed on. The platform, according to iwoca CEO and Co-Founder Christoph Rieche, help businesses get financing much quicker than old-school traditional platforms.