American Express plans to buy Nipendo to help create an end-to-end B2B platform.
The globally integrated payments company said in a Thursday (Jan. 12) press release that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the B2B payments automation company that serves global businesses.
Subject to customary closure conditions, the deal is expected to close during this quarter, according to the release.
“We are taking the friction out of B2B payments, paving the way for faster, more efficient and transparent transactions,” Anna Marrs, group vice president of global commercial services and credit and fraud risk at American Express, said in the release. “With Nipendo, we will strengthen our expertise and capabilities in the space, and their innovative platform will give business customers common ground to connect and transact on the Amex network.”
PYMNTS research has found that automation is playing an increasingly important role in invoicing and accounting functions, with two-thirds of firms either currently innovating their systems or planning to do so within the next 12 months.
Among those firms, 11% are currently innovating their accounts payable (AP) systems, 31% will start innovating in the next six months, and 27% will do so in the next 12 months, according to the “ERP Solutions in B2B Payments Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration.
Mastercard and Visa have been boosting their B2B offerings too. For example, Mastercard partnered with Sabre to enable B2B travel payments with virtual cards in November, while Visa B2B Connect added TD Securities to its cross-border B2B payment network in October.
The planned acquisition of Nipendo follows American Express’ purchase of Acompay in 2019, its partnerships with BillTrust and Versapay in 2022, and its announcement of Amex Business Link in December, according to the release.
The Nipendo platform provides additional automation while working with a company’s existing payments infrastructure, reducing the time and expense required to perform procure-to-pay processes that have traditionally been paper-based, the release said.
“We are honored to become a part of American Express, excited about the synergy of our mutual vision and looking forward to serving as an important component of the new business value we can offer, by efficiently streamlining B2B payments,” Nipendo Co-founder and CEO Eyal Rosenberg said in the release.
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