Southeast Asia Embraces The Corporate Card

Corporate cards are gaining traction in new parts of the globe, with innovations across Southeast Asia showcasing the region’s appetite for B2B payments digitization. Also featured in this week’s Commercial Card Innovation roundup are an ongoing focus on card-based expense management and card products for fleet and payroll payments.

OneSource Virtual Taps Mastercard For Commercial Card Tools

OneSource Virtual is investing heavily in commercial card technology and has enlisted the help of Mastercard to introduce two new card-based products for its business users. The first is Invoice Pay, an accounts payable tool that supports ACH, wire and check payments to suppliers, as well as virtual cards powered by Mastercard. The second is the myFlexPay Payroll Card, also powered by Mastercard, which OneSource Virtual says can help businesses migrate away from paper checks when paying employees and can be connected to OneSource Virtual’s existing myFlexPay Earned Wage Access tool to provide employees with early access to earned wages.

InstantPay Eyes Employee Expenses For Cashback Card

In what InstantPay claims is India’s first cashback card product, the FinTech announced the InstantPay Cashback Card is now available for both consumers and business users. The solution was developed in partnership with YES Bank and payments network NPCI, reports said, and while the card can be used for a variety of use cases, InstantPay highlighted the opportunity for businesses to adopt the card as a way to enhance management of employee spend, offering an integrated expense management solution with the card product.

RoadSync, AMBEST Team On Streamlined Fleet Payments

Digital finance platform RoadSync, which targets the logistics industry, is pairing up with truck stop and service center provider Ambest. Their partnership will see Ambest locations able to accept a variety of commercial cards, including credit and fleet cards as well as fleet checks. RoadSync will provide payment processing technology to streamline acceptance for truck stops and service centers. “The transportation industry as a whole, including independent truck stops and c-stores, has not historically had access to the latest in financial technology,” said Joel Sulser, director of Service Centers at Ambest, in a statement.

Sri Lanka’s ComBank Debuts Corporate Fuel Card

Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon (ComBank) is hoping to drive away physical fuel books and travel vouchers, digitizing corporate payments for company fleets with the release of its Corporate Fuel Credit Card and Prepaid Fuel Card. Local reports said the cards support automated transaction data capture and reconciliation and provide corporations with greater control and visibility over how employees spend on fuel. According to reports, commercial cards are the fastest growing card product in Sri Lanka.

Bench Lands $60 Million For Card, Spend Technology

Small business bookkeeping FinTech Bench recently announced a $60 million fundraise led by Contour Venture Partners. The Series C funding round also saw participation from existing backers Altos Ventures, iNovia Capital, and BMO T&I, while new investors Sage and Shopify also invested. Bench announced the funding in conjunction with the debut of its integrated platform for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to manage spend and finances, with support for banking, payroll and taxes. The platform is also connected to Bench cards, which provides a way to digitize and manage company spend. The debit card product is available via Bench’s partnership with Stripe, it noted.

Plate IQ Debuts Spend Management Card For Hospitality Firms

Targeting the hospitality industry, Plate IQ has released the Plate IQ Card, a corporate card product linked to an expense management solution. The corporate debit card can help automate transaction reconciliation and reporting, digitizing transactions that have historically relied upon physical cash for players in the industry, including tip payouts for workers. Businesses in the hospitality industry can use the card and the connected platform for both accounts payable spend as well as noninvoice spend while also connecting business users to cash back rewards.