GoCardless Debuts In US With Recurring ACH B2B Payments Sevice

GoCardless, a U.K.-based company providing businesses with recurring payment acceptance solutions, is launching in the U.S. with an eye on the B2B payments opportunity.

An announcement on GoCardless’ website on Wednesday (Sept. 18) said GoCardless is launching a debit payment solution in the U.S. as it opened headquarters in San Francisco, its latest geographic expansion that has brought the firm to France, Germany and Australia. The U.S. rollout comes as GoCardless opens up its ACH recurring debit payment service, allowing companies to use its platform to allow consumers to make recurring ACH payments instead of using credit cards to pay.

In its announcement, GoCardless pointed specifically to the opportunity in recurring B2B payments as a key motivation behind its expansion, noting that ACH is a top B2B payments tool in the U.S.

“ACH debit is becoming an increasingly popular choice for B2B payments in the U.S. and is expected to be more widely used than traditional payment methods, like checks, by 2020,” the company wrote, citing data from National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA).

ACH supports enhanced payment visibility and lowers involuntary churn by reducing the risk of payment failure rates compared to card payments, the company added, pointing to expired or lost cards and credit limits.

“By using the ACH debit network on the GoCardless platform, merchants can pull payments directly from their customers’ bank accounts at a lower cost than credit cards and without the overhead and burden of cash and checks,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.

In July, GoCardless announced another initiative to enhance B2B transactions through a partnership with DocuSign.

In an interview with Karen Webster, GoCardless General Manager Pranav Sood said customers of recurring services need to have payment options that lower the risk of payment failure rates and offer lower transaction costs. Its partnership with DocuSign allows joint customers in Europe to pay for DocuSign services via direct debit to address those friction points, he said.