December 8, 2022 - FintechOutlook

AvidXchange Partners with Intuit QuickBooks Online for invoice-to-pay API integration

Posted on December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 by fintechoutlook

A leading provider of accounts payable (AP) automation software and payment solutions, AvidXchange recently team up with Intuit QuickBooks Online for an invoice-to-pay application programming interface (API) integration. Customers who use QuickBooks Online will benefit from this new offering, which offers a fully automated, end-to-end, cloud-based AP and payment solution.

Dan Drees, Chief Growth Officer of AvidXchange, said, “Adding an integration for QuickBooks Online to our existing QuickBooks portfolio showcases our dedication to improving our solutions to meet the needs of our customers today. This is an exciting new integration for us, as well as the middle market as a whole, as we expand our capabilities across more existing platforms.”

This seamless integration, which is based on the AvidConnect platform, allows for the automatic syncing of accounting codes, vendor data, invoices, and payments using a combination of QuickBooks Online, AvidInvoice, and AvidPay technology. By doing this, customers with complex needs—in particular, those who have outgrown their AP solution provider or processes—can save time by automating these vital AP tasks.

The fact that the entire automated process is conducted through a single cloud-based platform makes it more efficient than manual processes or writing paper checks to pay vendors. As a result, customers can gain more knowledge from each transaction, identify patterns, make additional payments, and more by having access to more transparency and insight into the payment data. Furthermore, due to its digital nature, customers can cut accounting expenses by doing away with the need to purchase envelopes, and postage, and make trips to the bank to pay vendors and other expenses.

Wise and AvidXchange partner to expand international payments capabilities

Posted on December 8, 2022December 12, 2022 by fintechoutlook

AvidXchange, a leading provider of Account Payable (AP) automation software and payment solutions, has recently introduced its Cross-Border Payments solution, powered by Wise Platform. This industry-leading, integrated payments experience provides U.S.: – based AvidXchange customers with a more seamless payment experience, enabling them to pay domestic and international suppliers, all without leaving the platform.

With this fully automated bookkeeping process, AvidXchange customers are better informed of their foreign currency fees and any gains or losṣses, giving them greater control of their costs and cash flow right from the start. It enables businesses to save time and money in the payments process by reducing the manual effort required to print paper checks and tracking expensive international wire fees. Additionally, by allowing one unified platform to manage accounting and payments tasks, the process for paying international suppliers is safer than sending critical documents through the mail or sharing bank account information between multiple accounting systems.

“Partnering with Wise to bring best-in-class international payments capabilities to our customers was a no-brainer because of their leading-edge marketplace platform and their ability to seamlessly integrate,” said AvidXchange CMO Dan Drees. “We are standing strong as leaders together, and remain committed to making the payment experience for our customers even more effective, no matter the country lines.”

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are expanding globally, so they need partners to help them navigate the challenges this expansion brings, particularly international payments.

“The current systems make it difficult for businesses to send, spend, or receive money internationally with ease. With the help of AvidXchange, Wise is helping businesses gain access to a faster, cheaper, and more seamless way of managing finances with domestic and international suppliers across a range of currencies and countries,” said Steve Naude, Wise Platform Chief. “With 50% of Wise’s transfers sent instantaneously, and always at mid-market rates, AvidXchange customers can now be confident knowing that they are saving time and money on every transaction.”

The Wise Platform is in production use today with more than 50 banks and businesses that have integrated Wise’s capabilities building the best possible way to transfer money internationally, all within their existing infrastructure. With a special deployment team of deployment, engineering, customer, and product experts, Wise Platform works with partners such as AvidXchange to seamlessly integrate Wise APIs across partners and UIs. AvidXchange, Inc. is a licensed money transmitter for U.S. B2B payments, licensed as a money transmitter by the New York Department of Financial Services and in all other states where AvidXchange is required to be licensed.

FactSet and BMLL Technologies partnership brings Cloud-native comprehensive financial data

Posted on December 8, 2022December 12, 2022 by fintechoutlook

The provider of innovative solutions for financial data designed for analytical applications of emerging technologies and industry leading opportunities, FactSet (NYSE:FDS) (NASDAQ:FDS) is collaborating with leading, independent provider of Level 3 historical data and analytics globally, BMLL Technologies (BMLL) to incorporate the company’s full breadth and depth of tick history in cloud.

This collaboration in its initial phase had offered price data of products, final bids and ask price and their size, all in deep market insight (Level 2 Tick History) which provides better data quality than contemporary Level 2 offerings in the industry. FactSet is setting up a unique Level 2 product using BMLL’s Level 3 data engineering capabilities and providing clients with market depth in real-time updating data. Through this partnership, the Level 2 data is accessible through the same programming Interface as the Level 1 data all put up in the same delivery platform for progressive analysis, research and workflow optimization.

The CEO of BMLL Paul Humphrey said: “BMLL is a specialist provider of Historic LEVEL 3 Data. Our unique industry-leading normalization and harmonization processes, capturing every message at nanosecond precision timestamps, enable us to deliver the cleanest market data available anywhere in capital markets. We are excited to work with FactSet to offer our products and services to its global client base.”

BMLL’s cloud-friendly, normalized tick history and analytics offer market breadth and depth that meets the requirement of clients from FactSet for a wide range of applications- Quant Research, Best Execution, Back Test Strategy to generate alpha, Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA), Compliance, Surveillance and risk. It propagates FactSet’s goal to provide cloud solutions for integrated financial information to help improve client’s grasp on real-time data and betters market insight. Recently, FactSet made its entire Level 1 tick history accessible using Snowflake, a cost-optimized solution that provides normalized data without the need to download a large amount of data.

FactSet has also, along with IQ capital co-led BMLL’s fresh $26million Series B investment with the goal of growing BMLL engineering capabilities and acquiring new data sets. This would allow the financial community to make well informed decisions by accessing high quality data.

Head of content and technology Solutions, FactSet, Jonathan Reeve, EVP said: “Through our collaboration and investment in BMLL, FactSet is empowering a broader set of clients and democratizing access to rich insights derived from the full depth of historic order book data, which was previously only available to those with dedicated infrastructure and in-house capabilities to curate this level of data and analytics. We share a common vision with BMLL and look forward to delivering a differentiated advantage to our clients by leveraging the full power of Level 3 granular tick data.”

Tide Releases its New app in India

Posted on December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 by fintechoutlook

Tide, a UK-based SME-focused business financial platform, has released its Tide app in India. The Tide Business Account and its Tide Expense Card, which is powered by RuPay, are two business banking solutions that have been launched by the business financial platform.

Dr. Oliver Prill, the CEO, of Tide, said, “We are delighted to be launching this product in India, Tide’s first international market. India’s 64 million SMEs are the backbone of its economy, providing vital services, jobs, and growth. We believe there is a vast untapped segment of small businesses in India that hasn’t been formally accounted for. We, at Tide, are committed to introducing and including a large segment of this market into the formal economy.”

Over the next 24 months, Tide hopes to onboard 500,000 SMEs in India. Tide envisions building a sizable business in India over time and sees the Indian market as having a potential for £100 million in revenue. Together, the Tide Business Account and Tide Expense Card will enable transactions at all merchants that accept RuPay, track spending and business expenses, and aid small businesses in saving time and money.

The free Tide Expense Card can be used for cash withdrawals, in-store purchases (including contactless tap and pay), online purchases, and other payments by SMEs who sign up for the Tide Business Account.

Tide will only onboard small businesses after completing a full Know Your Customer (KYC) process to reduce the cost of due diligence and to prevent illegal activities such as money laundering and financial fraud. This corresponds to traditional banking practices. This indicates that SMEs can immediately enjoy all the advantages of a business account.

Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO, Tide (India) said, “We, at Tide, are working hard to support entrepreneurs in their growth journey and believe we are in a strong position to do exactly that. As Tide scales in India, we will expand our product offering for entrepreneurs to both manage their finances seamlessly, and to take the big step of starting out – whether as a freelancer, sole trader, contractor or small business owner. We are building a product that will not just offer business accounts and related banking services, but a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions.”

The business is working to launch several additional features that it will provide to small businesses in India. These include a Business Savings/ Current Account in collaboration with a bank, QR codes for payments, bank transfers, invoicing, GST, pay by link, and credit services. Tide will eventually deliver the complete richness of the UK platform tailored to the requirements of SMEs in India.

Galileo Introduces a Bank- and Fintech-Specific BNPL Solution

Posted on December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 by fintechoutlook

Galileo Financial Technologies, LLC, one of the leading financial technology companies owned and operated independently by SoFi Technologies, Inc., has announced the launch of a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution that includes the issuance of single-use virtual cards as well as full loan servicing. The adaptable Galileo Buy Now, Pay Later solution will be available to banks and fintechs, giving them quick access to the lucrative BNPL market and giving their customers more purchasing power.

By 2027, the BNPL market is expected to have more than 900 million users worldwide and provide flexible payment options. However, non-bank BNPL providers offer the service using scant customer information, which increases the risk for both the provider and the customer.

David Feuer, Chief Product Officer at Galileo, said, “As more Americans are looking for flexible financing solutions, Galileo created a better BNPL experience that allows banks and fintechs to make more valuable loan offers to their customers directly from their existing bank systems. For our clients who are already part of the Galileo ecosystem with checking and savings accounts, offering Buy Now, Pay Later makes it even more seamless for program managers to execute both payments and disbursements.”

The bank-issued Buy Now, Pay Later solution makes repayment flexibility available to more consumers in more places. Unlike non-bank BNPL providers, underwriting decisions are made by the bank or FinTech, who have insight and understand the customer’s financial history best. The total number of installments can be customized. Galileo then manages and services the loan, which includes overseeing the repayment schedule, disbursement to the virtual cards, assessment of interest and fees, payment processing, charge off, and optional credit reporting.

Clients and banks that offer Buy Now, Pay Later to their customers will be offered financing through their bank or a sponsoring bank partner under Galileo, considering the customers’ financial situation and capacity for repayment. A real-time personalized offer is displayed on the bank’s or FinTech’s mobile application. The majority of retailers will present a prefunded, one-time use virtual card in-store or online if the customer accepts the loan offer.