B-to-B payments

Banks trudging along slowly with digital advancements are getting a push from virtual card technology providers touting the concept of mass distribution for commercial card issuers.

Stripe’s technology, which enables millions of merchants to easily accept payments online, also provides a window into the broader money-management pain points of the businesses it serves — and it is through this window that Stripe sees a path for growth.

Salesforce.com Inc. agreed to buy Slack Technologies Inc. for $27.7 billion in cash and stock, giving the corporate software giant a popular workplace-communications platform in one of the biggest technology deals of the year.

Digital workforce collaboration apps like Slack are hot acquisition targets, particularly for a company like Salesforce, which needs to compete with enterprise technology companies while making it easy for its clients to execute an "invisible payment" that's embedded in cross-selling and marketing.

As the pandemic continues to expose vulnerabilities, executives need to alter and reshape their risk management strategies with purchase to pay in mind for future success, says Proactis' Jan van der Pouw.

Payoneer has integrated its payment orchestration platform into its core services, a year after obtaining the cloud-based technology through the acquisition of German payments provider Optile.

Banks have made great strides in applying digital technology to the world of checks, but companies that receive checks still have to physically receive them in order to digitize them, says Santander's Greg Murray.

While most payment firms consider checking a time-consuming expensive relic for business transactions, one San Francisco-based fintech is going the opposite direction by adding checks to its digital platform.

Business e-mail compromise is a particular risk, says Nvoicepay's Josh Cyphers.

Two years after launching Early Pay to expedite B2B payments via discounts, American Express is taking on more of the tasks that surround transactions.