PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Monto Raises $9 Million to Seed B2B Payments Platform

B2B invoice payments

Israeli B2B payments platform Monto has emerged from stealth with $9 million in funding.

“Monto enables B2B finance teams to seamlessly get paid from any AP portal used by their enterprise customers,” the company said in a Tuesday (July 30) news release announcing the seed funding and a new office in New York City.

According to the release, Monto offers “smart connections between financial systems,” chiefly between ERPs and accounts payable (AP) portals, with an artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform that can learn each customer’s invoicing requirements.

This, said Monto, can ensure a seamless payment flow for the supplier, thus reducing manual workload and lowering the risk of late payments and improving cash flow management. The company says its clients include firms like ShutterstockTechTarget and G2, and that it has helped suppliers get paid nearly $1 billion.

Monto says it aims to assist a business world in which companies are increasingly adopting eInvoicing, either due to government regulations or market demand.

For example, this spring saw the news that the first electronic invoice had been successfully sent across the U.S. Digital Business Networks Alliance Open Exchange Network (DBNAlliance), with the invoice being transmitted from the U.S. to the Netherlands.

Dolf Kars, CEO at e-invoicing provider Storecove and DBNAlliance board member, predicted at the time that it would be the first of billions more invoices in the years to come.

“In this new B2B world, suppliers must integrate with each customer’s payment software, each with its own complex logins and workflows, creating endless chaos for payment collection teams that can severely impact cash flow and working capital,” Monto said.

As PYMNTS noted in April, more than 80 countries have already established a mandate for eInvoicing or continuous transaction control (CTC) requirements as governments around the globe make tax reform and real-time reporting priorities.

“But the move toward e-invoicing is not merely about converting a paper invoice into a digital format; it’s about reimagining the entire B2B invoicing process to be more streamlined and better integrated into digital business ecosystems,” that report said.

“The workflow transformation promises to reduce errors, lower costs, and speed up B2B payment processes, offering substantial benefits to companies of all sizes.”

And as covered here Tuesday, PYMNTS Intelligence data has shown that almost half (45%) of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) point to manual invoice review as a problem when making payments, with 19% saying it was their main issue.

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PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024