Today in B2B payments, companies are starting to tap into the cash reserves they built during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Goldman Sachs leads an investment group that sends $150 million in debt financing to spend management platform Airbase. Plus, Synchrony and Fiserv collaborate on BNPL offering.
Goldman Helps Airbase Take Off With $150M Credit Facility
Spend management platform Airbase announced Friday (July 15) it secured $150 million in debt financing led by Goldman Sachs. Airbase will use the funds to expand its charge card program to its growing customer base.
Airbase said its corporate cards are software-enabled, meaning they capture and transmit spending data. Automated approval workflows link the data to company policies, and accounting entries are synced to the general ledger, while the spend management platform handles all non-payroll spending.
Wanted: Supply Chain and Logistics Savants to Help Close Deals
Businesses increasingly see delivery preferences, speed of delivery, cost of delivery and inbound supply chain as competitive advantages. As a result, the role of logistics and the supply chain is fundamentally different from what it was five years ago.
Kushal Nahata, CEO and co-founder of intelligent delivery platform FarEye, has seen this change among his clients: retail, eCommerce and third-party logistics companies.
When logistics and supply chain were considered a cost function, companies wanted to cut those costs, Nahata said. Now that they’re considered a revenue function, more businesses are leaning on their chief supply chain officer as a core business role rather than a supporting role.
Synchrony, Fiserv Team to Offer BNPL
Consumer financing company Synchrony has launched Synchrony SetPay pay in 4, an installment payment option for merchants, according to a Thursday (July 14) press release.
The buy now, pay later (BNPL) service is offered via the Clover point-of-sale and business management system from Fiserv and is designed to offer consumers more flexibility. The tool lets consumers make four equal, interest-free payments for purchases typically between $40 and $500, with an initial payment due at checkout.
Synchrony said the offering is part of its Pay with Synchrony app, which is available on the Clover App Market for participating merchants using any Clover device. This marks the first time that a combined private-label credit card and a BNPL solution will be available to small businesses through Clover.
On-Demand Payments Help Companies Retain In-Demand Contractors, Consultants
Among in-demand contractors and consultants, the ability to be selective about the jobs they accept makes them unlikely to maintain relationships with employers that do not align with their needs for predictable and on-demand pay, according to the “Expanding Payments Choice Playbook,” a PYMNTS and Onbe collaboration.
In fact, gig workers’ employment decisions are increasingly driven by how they get paid, and unpredictable payments are one of the leading reasons independent workers switch employers.
Employers that hire contractors may not always be ready for the complexity of ensuring there are no delays or unexpected problems related to timely payment. Gig workers may not even be in the same country, let alone the same city as an employer. When geographic separation and cross-border transactions are added to the payroll equation, legacy payment rails can introduce delays of days or even weeks, driving workers away.
Companies Begin Tapping Into Pandemic Cash Reserves
Companies have begun dipping into the cash supplies they built up when the COVID-19 pandemic began, using those funds for acquisitions, buybacks and purchasing inventory to deal with supply chain delays. This spending of cash reserves varies from industry to industry, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
For example, a number of industrial companies have seen their cash ratios dip below pre-pandemic levels. The median cash ratio for investment-grade industrial firms was 21.4 in the first quarter, compared to 37.8 in 2021’s first quarter and 23.8 during same period in 2019, according to the report.
Industrial firms are struggling with the impact of the supply chain backlog and continued production delays, said Chris Dankert, senior vice president at investment firm Loop Capital Markets. Several companies are using cash to buy more inventory as they face extended lead times on their orders.
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