Stampli Debuts Direct Pay Feature

Stampli, which works in accounts payable automation, has debuted a new feature called Stampli Direct Pay which a press release says will let companies pay invoices with ACH or by check from their own bank accounts.

That, according to the release, has the effect of avoiding credit card processing fees laid at the feet of the vendors.

The release goes on to list some of the factors making Stampli Direct Pay different from other such services. For example, it will let companies reconcile payments with bank statements, with one withdrawal for each payment related to the invoice. And it will provide a vendor portal where vendors can ask questions of companies, easing points of potential friction.

In addition, the company automates sending paper checks and provides “easy access” to relevant payment details and supporting documents, the release says.

Eyal Feldman, the company’s chief executive, said Stampli considers payments “to be a commodity, not a revenue generator.”

He said Stampli Direct Pay is “the opposite” of methods other companies use to “hold vendor information hostage” and push alternate payment methods for selfish reasons.

“Stampli Direct Pay is the opposite — flexible, straightforward, and low-cost — with the singular goal of ensuring the entire financial process from invoice to payment to reconciliation is easy and efficient,” he said, according to the release. “For example, if you pay a $5,000 invoice with ACH using Stampli Direct Pay, you’ll pay less than $1 to process that payment vs. $175 imposed on your vendors to accept virtual credit card payments. Vendors are your partners, not your enemies.”

In 2019, Stampli announced $25 million in new funding from a round led by SignalFire with participation from Hillsven Capital, Bloomberg Beta and NextWorld Capital. At the time, Feldman said the use of AP was pervasive and spreading out throughout the company, and Stampli had begun working on invoices as tools of communication between vendors and companies by that time.