Bento for Business (“Bento”), a leading B2B payments solutions provider, today unveiled Bento Pay™, the first-of-its-kind digital payment solution that eliminates the need to write checks and gives businesses the ease and security of paying any supplier confidentially, regardless of their digital payment preferences.
At the CB Insights Future of Fintech conference, Bento for Business Co-Founder and CEO Farhan Ahmad said the company’s straight-to-payee solution offers flexible digital payment options that tackle fragmented workflows and address the lack of true supplier enablement that exist today between SMBs and their suppliers.
Unlike other solutions that require account set-up and sharing of confidential financial information, Bento Pay users need only the payee’s email address to send payments, thus alleviating security and privacy concerns. Payees, in turn, elect to receive funds via a one-time use virtual card or ACH transfer, safeguarding their information and enjoying fast, seamless transactions.
“Digital technology has made consumer banking and payments so much easier and faster. Businesses today are demanding the same level of convenience and control,” said Ahmad. “They want to move away from complex, high-cost workflows towards a solution that is flexible and secure. Bento Pay users can smoothly and securely complete business payments to their suppliers while controlling their cash from one central place.”
This new capability rounds out Bento’s full-stack payments offering, which now includes debit and virtual cards, real-time payments, and ACH transfers. Together, these payment options elevate the Bento financial operating platform beyond its initial focus on spending and expense management.
B2B commerce for SMBs in the U.S. is expected to reach $9 trillion by 2020, yet 80 percent of these businesses still use paper checks for payments. According to Deloitte Consulting, there is a $100 billion revenue opportunity as more businesses migrate to digital payments.
“Until now, we’ve seen no meaningful revolution in the B2B fintech space that can viably address the underserved needs of SMBs,” said Ahmad. “We envisioned Bento as the financial operating platform of choice for SMBs, and the addition of real-time payment capabilities is a continuation of our vision. With Bento Pay, we are transforming the way businesses pay each other.”
In April of this year, the company launched the Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card to give millions of Visa merchants instant access to Bento’s modular financial solutions for cash management. Bento is further engaging its business customers with differentiated third-party partner programs and API integrations to meet the unique needs of broader businesses and service providers.
Bento will officially introduce Bento Pay to customers in July.