In its quest to orchestrate more business-to-business payments between buyers and suppliers, American Express on Thursday said it's agreed to buy Nipendo, a Tel Aviv startup that helps to digitize many B2B transactions.
The move builds on the card network's launch last month of
Nipendo, established in 2010, operates in the U.S. from offices in Boston. The company uses robotic process automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline the first stage of payments for companies that anticipate sending and receiving invoices electronically, with the goal of eliminating checks and paper-based processes.
"It's not just the payment process we need to improve, but the stuff that happens upstream at companies that makes things hard," said
Nipendo operates in the background of a buyer or supplier company's existing platform, and lays the groundwork for digitizing payments by verifying the accuracy of invoice details and recipients, including automatically managing discrepancies, she said.
"Nipendo allows everyone in the chain to speak the same language so they can automate and streamline the non-payment parts of B2B payments," Taylor said.
One buyer already using Nipendo's platform is a large U.S. pharmaceutical company that needs to receive invoices from smaller suppliers in a format that will trigger a digital payment, according to Taylor, who declined to name the company.
"Nipendo addresses these adjacent buyer-supplier needs to create a fully end-to-end B2B payment service," she said.
Amex's purchase of Nipendo also dovetails with the card network's
With Nipendo, Amex can offer businesses a two-way system for initiating a digitized payment, whether they're looking to get paid by a supplier or pay an invoice, Henry said. A likely outcome could be a sharp reduction in the use of checks, which still account for about 40% of all B2B payments, he added.
Amex is one of the largest B2B payment providers in the world, and unlike other payment networks, the company has direct relationships with buyers and suppliers that are part of its closed-loop network, Henry said, adding that Amex supports payments through cards, non-card rails, debit, ACH and wire payments.
"What we're doing here is trying to create a Venmo, if you will, of B2B payments, within the Amex platform," Henry said.
Financial terms of the deal, which is slated to close before March 31, 2023, were not disclosed.
