Today in B2B: Virtual Cards and Spend Management Cut SMB Costs; Sabre and eRoam Team on Travel Solution for Agencies

Today in B2B payments, Raistone and Mastercard team up to streamline B2B payments, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are cutting costs and removing obstacles with virtual cards and spend management. Plus, electronic payments help B2B companies get closer to their customers, and Sabre and eRoam team up for new travel solution for agencies.

Electronic Payments Foster Closer Relationships With B2B Customers

Many companies are starting to discover that electronic payments complement their efforts to foster closer relationships with their B2B customers.

“The Strategic Role of the CFO,” a PYMNTS and Versapay collaboration that surveyed 400 chief financial officers, reports that the most innovative companies are trying to improve the quality of their communications with customers. Making supporting documents visible along with invoices can provide clients with the level of transparency and trust they need to remit timely payments.

An example is automated monthly payments, which have been available to consumers for years in the form of subscriptions. Recently, some companies discovered they could set up similar arrangements with their business customers for items such as regular, recurring shipments.

Raistone, Mastercard Streamline B2B Payments, Increase SMB Working Capital

FinTech Raistone teamed up with Mastercard to streamline business-to-business (B2B) finance payments and accelerate working capital for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using Mastercard’s virtual card technology, according to a Tuesday (April 5) press release.

Raistone will lean on Mastercard to speed up and secure the finance approval process, which can often exclude SMBs from accessing the money they need to scale their businesses, the press release says. The Raistone-Mastercard collaboration “promotes diversity and inclusion by extending convenient financial tools to the companies that need them most,” according to the announcement.

Sabre, eRoam Launch Travel Solution for Agencies

Travel software provider Sabre Corporation is collaborating with B2B leisure sales platform eRoam Travel Technology to launch an online B2B and B2C leisure travel solution for agencies, the companies said in a news release Tuesday (April 5).

As part of the partnership, eRoam becomes a gold-level developer in Sabre’s developer partner network, “which allows Sabre-connected agencies, tour operators and destination management companies to find and utilize partner solutions to support their specific business needs and requirements,” the release said.

The partnership sees eRoam expand Sabre’s partner ecosystem by adding an AI-enabled leisure travel platform to Sabre’s network, allowing agencies to create their own travel packages.

Virtual Cards, Spend Management Help SMBs Cut Costs — and Red Tape

When employees must pay their expenses out of pocket and get reimbursed later, the process isn’t just tedious — it’s expensive too. As a result, there’s a continuing transition away from legacy solutions.

Providing a better solution is the challenge Torpago set out to solve three years ago with a platform that includes real-time integration and other benefits, starting with Visa commercial credit cards it rolled out in late 2020. The FinTech corporate card and spend management platform offers physical cards, virtual cards, automated expenses, integrations and credit.

The company has scaled rapidly since its launch, with 1,400 small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers using the platform. In March, Torpago announced March 17 its acquisition of Wishlife, a technology company that specializes in secure video communications and content management software.