Hi Brandon, please tell us a bit about your journey to build TreviPay as a benchmark in the B2B space.
At its inception, TreviPay (known as MSTS at the time) was created as a fuel card solution for truckers to offer a better way for truck drivers to pay for fuel other than cash. This was quickly found to be applicable to other verticals/industries looking to solve similar payment challenges in complex B2B supply chains.
Starting in 2014 as COO, I was responsible for the general operations of the business including financial controls, accounting, FP&A, technology and engineering. Following this time of continued growth and building a world-class leadership team, I am now the CEO of TreviPay leading our latest journey in B2B commerce, order-to-cash automation and embedded payments solutions.
TreviPay helps solve the complexity of B2B supply chains by extending credit on behalf of its clients and providing invoicing with net terms at checkout. This helps B2B businesses protect their working capital to fuel growth.
Could you please briefly explain how exactly TreviPay is contributing as a SaaS platform for the customers?
A big challenge for B2B companies is being paid on time. TreviPay provides the turnkey, proprietary technology that enables the order-to-cash process for a supplier. When a supplier isn’t paid on time, B2B companies should not assume there is an issue with the payment itself, but rather look earlier in the order-to-cash process when the interaction with the buyer began, and an invoice is being created. For example, if an invoice is incorrect (which could happen for many reasons, including inputting the wrong price, quantity, or item), the probability of getting paid on time decreases dramatically.
Everything that flows downstream after an order is created (such as creating/distributing an invoice, dealing with disputes/collections, etc.) is common between industries. While there are differences in how an invoice is created between countries (such as the information required, tax implications, currency differences, etc.), the general business process is similar. TreviPay’s SaaS platform – a portion of our overall offering – allows B2B companies to consolidate the amount of different software being used, including ERP and accounting systems. As a payments company, TreviPay tackles any payment issues early the order-to-cash process to ensure our clients’ payment happens on time.
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For 2022, TreviPay has made two acquisitions – Apruve and Baton FS, what are your strategies for such financial steps?
For acquisitions, we’re most interested in businesses that are in or around our space, which is order-to-cash automation that results in payment and money flow. Beyond that, we look for three key things: expertise in new verticals, specialty in new markets or markets where we could use more depth, and businesses that are making an aggregated volume of payments today. Apruve has done a good job penetrating the high-tech manufacturing vertical, has established relationships with global banks in APAC (one of the more complicated markets to operate in) and has aggregate payment volume.
TreviPay currently empowers $6billion global trade in 19 currencies across 32 countries in your domain, What is your target for 2025?
As we close the year, we’re proud to say these numbers have increased! With more than four decades of experience building networks, TreviPay has become the preferred B2B payment method of corporate buyers and sellers globally, processing $7 billion in transaction volume across 34 countries in 20 currencies. For 2025, our goal is to hit $10 billion.
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Hackers attack people worldwide roughly every half a minute, what is your USP to deal with digital fraud?
As eCommerce and digital transformation accelerated over the last two and a half years, more customers were acquired online, leading to a growing risk of B2B business identity theft and other forms of digital fraud. Our research confirms this, as most B2B businesses (98%) shared that they have been affected by financial losses due to successful fraud attacks. Fraud defense happens by attempting to improve existing tools or partnering with a powerful third-party solution provider for the best in fraud prevention. By leveraging data to offer instant decisioning and credit, you can strengthen the relationship between buyers and sellers and maintain a strong track record for risk decisioning. TreviPay enables its clients to extend a risk-free credit line or net terms at checkout to a qualified business in under 30 seconds while simultaneously evaluating fraud and other risks.
Can you explain how the clients tend to benefit from “Embedded Payments” and “Uber-like Payments”?
As we enter 2023, B2B merchants will continue to face immense competition to win digital buyers, amplifying the need to offer payment solutions that will drive revenue and support customer loyalty. Embedded payments make this possible, offering simplicity and ease of use to make the payment process feel invisible.
If a business can offer a more enhanced and seamless customer experience through payments, the likelihood of securing repeat customers increases. From a B2B perspective, business buyers prefer to purchase on terms and will spend more, more frequently when they have a dedicated financial relationship and credit line with a business.
Consumers are now demanding online experiences, happily virtual, wanting seamless digital procurement and provisioning, and wanting everything at the click of a button. Can you name any two biggest challenges that an IT leader will face in 2023.
Most company resources and attention have been on improving the online customer buying journey for the B2C buyer, but the payments industry is finally turning its attention to focus on how money flows in the B2B ecosystem, which means merchants are re-evaluating business models to determine how to best digitize processes for the business buyer. As mentioned earlier, being paid on time will continue to a challenge for B2B suppliers and further spotlight the importance of a seamless order-to-cash process. Our clients have been recently focusing on days sales outstanding (DSO), the average number of days it takes a company to receive payment for a sale, for success. Today, with the rate environment continuing to rise, and likely remain high, working capital is more important than ever.
The second challenge is recognizing that companies do not have to solve all problems themselves. There tends to be an inherent desire to own an entire customer ecosystem or platform, but this is less likely to be successful for B2B transactions given their complexity and cross-border nuances. Merchants must put their business buyers’ needs at the center and understand who they can collaborate with to solve the problem together. Partnering with a purpose-built B2B invoicing and payments provider will likely be the fastest way to plug-and-play an easy experience for corporate customers.
Please tell us about the future you foresee for the B2B space in other relatable industries that you plan to dive into.
The future of B2B payments is an easier pathway for all suppliers to have access to platforms and capabilities that allow them to expand the types/locations of the customers they want to serve. Looking ahead, our objective will remain making B2B payments easier, faster and smarter, and there are many adjacent industries where our solution can be applicable. Anywhere there is a complex B2B supply chain, such as in travel, manufacturing or healthcare, where an industry is undergoing change, or where a business supplier is looking to sell in another country, TreviPay can play an important role. Payments are a powerful way to create or tap into a trusted buyer-seller network that features strong connections, exclusive payment and invoicing terms, enhanced efficiencies, reduced costs and expanded recurring opportunities.
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Is there a webinar or live conference you are most excited about attending and why?
TreviPay is excited for MAG’s Mid-Year Conference & Tech Forum taking place in February 2023. The conference hosts great discussion on the latest payments industry trends. If you’re there, please come say hello!
Thank you, Brandon! That was fun and we hope to see you back on globalfintechseries.com soon.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Brandon leads TreviPay with expertise in managing large, diverse global teams. His strength is discerning and focusing on the most important challenges facing an organization at a particular point in time and unifying all stakeholders behind accomplishing a set of specific goals. Brandon has a unique ability to connect across all levels of an organization, motivate staff with diverse skill sets, while ensuring a common alignment and results.
TreviPay is the global B2B payments and invoicing network built to optimize trade between buyers and sellers. With more than four decades of experience building networks, TreviPay is the preferred B2B payment method of corporate buyers and sellers globally, processing $6 billion in transaction volume across 32 countries, 19 currencies and 90,000 active buyers. TreviPay gives clients the power to offer trade credit, and is trusted by major brands – with 80,000 selling locations – to deliver invoices with net terms and guaranteed payment across all sales and distribution channels. TreviPay has created the only fully managed payment and invoicing network to support B2B commerce of the future.
