The companies will work in three key B2B areas: solutions for the business traveler, solutions for accounts payables and receivables; and accelerating Visa’s bank clients go-to-market strategies.

The first project under the new partnership has launched in Colombia, where Visa, NovoPayment and a local bank are enabling real-time payments in the urban delivery sector through a suite of APIs that provide courier fleets the ability to electronically procure goods from merchants on behalf of customers through dynamically created and loaded Visa accounts. This new model, integrated by NovoPayment’s platform, gives urban delivery businesses greater operational agility and scalability in a fast-growing and digitally-driven category.

Another project advancing under this new partnership, aims at simplifying the payment of independent drivers in the expanding urban mobility and shared transportation sector. Under this model, drivers will use Visa accounts to efficiently receive payment for services rendered and to manage day-to-day expenses.

Through the integration with Visa’s platforms and API’s, this partnership with NovoPayment offers Visa clients – banks, merchants and acquirers – new payment functionalities and the ability to accelerate the adoption of electronic payments in the region.

“Through our open collaboration strategy, we partner with fintechs in the region to accelerate the adoption of new technological capabilities that complement our payment functionalities and those of our bank and merchant partners,” said Allen Cueli, Vice President of Product Solutions and New Enablers. "This is the first initiative resulting from a broader partnership with NovoPayment, focused on the deployment of a number of projects including prepaid enablement, API integration as well as B2B solutions,” he concluded.

The partnership with NovoPayment aligns with Visa’s overall objective to move businesses and consumers from cash to digital forms of payment. For Visa, a culture that relies less on cash provides more convenience, more security and ease of use, which translates into faster growth and greater efficiency compared to cumbersome and expensive cash handling processes.

“We work to expand the use of electronic payments across the region, to improve people’s daily lives and help businesses increase sales and operate more efficiently,” said Diego Rodriguez, Vice President Business Solutions Visa Latin America and the Caribbean. “These projects with NovoPayment allow us to extend our reach and presence in the region, through different business models, facilitating payments amongst businesses and creating frictionless business-to-business interactions,” he added.

“Ultimately, by integrating our APIs and collaborating more closely, we are able to help others deliver better customer experiences and create new value chains free of traditional bottlenecks, while capturing new money and data flows,” said Anabel Perez, CEO of NovoPayment. “Our most recent project in Colombia is a great example of the kind of interoperability and structure required in today’s platform-driven businesses and a hint of what is possible in the future,” she added.

The combined proficiencies of both companies, along with their reach, will accelerate the development and diversity of Latin America’s payments ecosystem.