Uncertainty in global markets isn’t just about headline news. It’s about daily operational reality. Tariff wars and shifting trade agreements have put pressure on both pricing and sourcing strategies. Finance must be able to forecast across multiple scenarios, and cash flow has become an imperative.

The dynamism of today’s operational realities is also rewriting the rules of B2B sales.

Traditionally, B2B sales strategies were the domain of sales and marketing teams. Chief financial officers (CFOs) were expected to provide oversight, manage risk, and keep an eye on compliance. But as the market grows more complex, so does the CFO’s role.

In this new era, CFOs can’t afford to be passive participants in revenue strategy. Their expertise is essential for navigating everything from shifting regulations to cyber risk in payments and constructing contracts that are flexible, adjusting for material cost surges, and ensuring the business is protected from downside risk

Read also: How Payments Innovation Underpins All-Weather Businesses and Resilient Supply Chains

The New Age of B2B Payments Innovation

Many B2B contracts can now routinely feature clauses that allow for price adjustments in the event of significant cost swings. These additions, once the stuff of legal fine print, now are emerging as a potentially strategic lever.

“We’re seeing prices go up,” Shep Hickey, CEO at metal digital marketplace Bryzos, told PYMNTS. “Businesses are trying to conserve stock, and the easiest way to do that is raise prices or just stop selling … It’s not what you paid for your inventory — it’s what it’ll cost you to replace it.”

But perhaps the most transformative change in B2B sales strategy is happening in payments. The days of net-60 and net-90 terms as the default are numbered, driven in part by demand for cash flow transparency on both sides of the deal. This creates a backdrop where building out a B2B sales approach is a team sport, and finance is a key player.

“A payment might be due in 30 days, but the buyer might typically pay in 45 or 60,” Boost Payment Solutions CEO Dean Leavitt told PYMNTS this month. “If suppliers can get paid at day 30 for agreeing to accept commercial cards or other digital solutions, they do it. That gives them a working capital advantage.”

Offering more ways to pay sounds simple, but it has profound implications for working capital and risk. Automated payment platforms, virtual cards, smart invoicing, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) options are increasingly table stakes for B2B sellers. Finance’s involvement is critical, and not just to vet the tools, but to structure sales incentives and terms that align with the company’s broader capital strategy.

“Over time, I expect CFOs to be more involved in sales conversations — maybe even CFO-to-CFO discussions,” Mark Flakne, CFO at Included Health, said during a conversation for the PYMNTS executive series, “A Day in the Life of a CFO.”

Research in the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Smart Spending: How AI Is Transforming Financial Decision Making” found that more than 8 in 10 CFOs at large companies are either already using artificial intelligence (AI) or considering adopting it for a core financial function like accounts payable, or the process by which companies pay their suppliers, vendors and contractors.

See also: Digitizing the B2B Payments Landscape Starts With … Sales?

Data as a B2B Sales Engine

At the same time, KPIs in 2025 are more granular. Sales leaders can leverage advanced dashboards to monitor not just revenue, but every aspect of buyer engagement: email opens, webinar participation, demo interactions, and social media activity. This data-driven approach enables rapid experimentation and continuous optimization of sales processes.

Buyers today also increasingly expect frictionless digital experiences, including self-service portals, real-time quotes and instant payments. Companies are investing in end-to-end platforms that blend CRM, ERP, and payment processing, decisions requiring finance’s early and ongoing involvement.

”We need high-growth businesses to survive and thrive [in this uncertain economy],” Lucy Demery, senior vice president, head of Visa Commercial Solutions, Europe, told PYMNTS, noting that embedded options are proving to be a “huge unlock for supply chain payments.”

As 2025 unfolds, B2B sales is less about cold calls and more about curated, data-backed relationships powered by technology — but never forgetting the human element. The winners will be those who balance high-tech tools with high-touch engagement, redefining what it means to connect and deliver value in the digital age.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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The collaboration brings together Cardlay’s spend management solution and Visa’s payments infrastructure, enabling fleet operators to consolidate all their fuel and non-fuel-related payments within a single platform, the companies said in a Wednesday (April 23) press release.

“By combining Cardlay’s modular platform with Visa’s powerful infrastructure, we’re able to empower companies with advanced tools to streamline operations, optimize costs and support sustainable, data-driven growth in the mobility sector,” Cardlay Chief Sales Officer Kasper Guul Laursen said in the release.

With the Cardlay spend management module and the Visa Ready for Fleet program, businesses can enforce policies and controls with the help of enhanced data insights and automated data capture; securely issue, distribute and control unrestricted B2B fleet cards; and eliminate the need for multiple cards, according to the release.

The solution also includes electric vehicle charging integrations, street parking integrations, loyalty program integrations and CO2/ESG reporting, per the release.

Visa Ready provides its technology company partners with a certification program that helps them build and launch payment solutions that meet Visa’s global standards for security and functionality and allows them access to Visa’s product and go-to-market expertise, according to the program’s website.

“Visa is at its strongest when we combine our core assets with those of our partners,” Richard Campion, head of fleet and B2B mobility at Visa Europe, said in the Wednesday press release. “Through the Visa Ready for Fleet program, Visa is creating an ecosystem of partners who can deliver a suite of solutions for our fleet and mobility clients.”

The new integration expands on a partnership that began in October, when Cardlay said it was working with Visa to improve spend management for commercial card issuers by offering clients “fully embedded” commercial cards and expense management solutions.

Visa said in March that it would add tokenization and custom provisioning for mobile transactions to its Fleet cards, enabling issuers and FinTechs to integrate encrypted and tokenized card information into Apple Pay mobile wallets.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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A Tuesday (April 22) press release stated that Lynq is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2025, following more than a year of development and industry consultation.

The platform was developed by Arca Labs, Tassat Group and tZERO Group and aims to address some of the common pain points in settlement involving digital assets, such as market fragmentation, counterparty risk and evolving regulatory requirements.

The release said the Lynq network will offer yield for its “institutional clients” — including banks, hedge funds, investment advisors and similar organizations that invest on behalf of others.

The network is powered by a tokenized treasury fund, the Arca Institutional U.S. Treasury Fund (TFND), which issues shares as digital asset securities, according to the release.

“Lynq operates within a legal framework that leverages tZERO’s Broker-Dealer and Special Purpose Broker-Dealer licenses, as well as Arca’s Registered Investment Adviser and Delaware Trust,” the release said. Tassat is the provider of Lynq’s blockchain infrastructure.

Additional key Lynq partners include B2C2, Galaxy Digital and Wintermute, which are assisting with counterparty onboarding and providing initial liquidity.

The release also identified U.S. Bank as Lynq’s qualified cash custodian and treasury management services provider. In addition, Avalanche will supply the open-source Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure for issuing and rebalancing TFND shares.

The thinking behind the partnership combination is to provide “segregated account security, transparent proof of reserves and broad ecosystem connectivity,” the release said.

Executives from the partner firms highlighted Lynq’s focus on capital efficiency, security and robust infrastructure to encourage institutional participation in the digital assets space.

Katryna Hanush, the managing director of Wintermute, noted in the press release that the platform “streamlines onboarding, subscription, and redemption, offering counterparties a safer and more efficient way to transact.”

“We see Lynq as a key part of the next generation of institutional infrastructure,” B2C2 Group CEO Thomas Restout said in a statement.

Speaking of payment rails involving digital assets, Circle is rolling out a stablecoin-powered payments and cross-border remittance network in May.

The post Lynq Consortia With U.S. Bank Out to Change Digital Asset Settlement appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The announced U.S. tariffs and ongoing uncertainties surrounding them have reignited cost pressures and supply chain complexities that many businesses had only just begun to recover from post-pandemic.

With rates reaching as high as 25% on key industrial products and components, companies are recalibrating their procurement strategies in real time. But while tariffs have added friction to global trade, they are also catalyzing a new wave of digital transformation in finance and supply chain operations.

Tariffs, by design, increase the cost of imported goods to incentivize domestic production. However, in practice, they often inject uncertainty into supply chains, making it harder for procurement teams to plan, budget and execute purchases.

To stay competitive, companies are turning to digital payments and integrated B2B marketplace platforms that provide greater transparency and control over procurement spend. Tools like dynamic discounting and automated invoice reconciliation, as well as digitizing the entire procure-to-pay cycle, are becoming strategic levers for navigating economic headwinds.

Read also: Trump’s Global Tariffs Position CFOs as New Supply Chain Architects

The Tariff Trigger Sets Off Digital Procurement Race

With tariffs increasing the costs for imported components and more, companies are turning to digital procurement and payment platforms, many of which are capable of streamlining vendor onboarding, automating payments in multiple currencies, and allowing finance teams to negotiate early payment discounts.

Amazon, for example, is surveying its third-party sellers to determine the effect of tariffs on their businesses. CEO Andy Jassy has acknowledged that shoppers could bear the brunt of these costs, as merchants recalibrate to safeguard their margins.

Digital procurement isn’t just about buying things cheaper but is increasingly about creating a data-rich environment where finance and operations can collaborate in real time, making the business more agile in the face of geopolitical and economic shocks.

“It used to be an educational process just explaining what digitizing payments meant,” Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards told PYMNTS this month. “Now we see CFOs and treasurers wanting to optimize it. They want to know, ‘How can we make these processes even more economically attractive?’”

Embedded financial services — offering banking, lending and insurance within non-financial platforms — are another piece of the puzzle. By integrating financing options directly into procurement workflows, companies can smooth out cash flow gaps caused by fluctuating tariffs and shifting supplier terms.

Platforms like Flex, which raised $225 million in March, and Lenkie, which raised $62 million also last month, illustrate a trend where financial services are integrated into business workflows.

At the same time, compliance departments are grappling with a surge in know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and other regulatory checks as global commerce grows more fragmented.

See also: KYB in Spotlight as Tariffs and Digital Innovation Reshape Procurement

A New Operating Model for a New Era of Proactive Procurement

While some companies are struggling under the weight of rising costs and disrupted supply chains, others are seizing the opportunity to innovate their payment processes, with virtual cards emerging as a solution for B2B payments across digital platforms.

“A payment might be due in 30 days, but the buyer might typically pay in 45 or 60,” Boost Payment Solutions CEO Dean Leavitt told PYMNTS this month. “If suppliers can get paid at day 30 for agreeing to accept commercial cards or other digital solutions, they do it. That gives them a working capital advantage.”

Separately, firms are realizing that future-proofing their procurement operations when times are tough could pay off down the line as the macro environment finds its footing, and as the ongoing generational shift among procurement and executive leadership continues unabated with its preference for seamless, digital-first procure-to-pay experiences.

“There’s technology that can help, but it really depends on the industry,” Matt Carey, senior vice president, office of the CFO at FIS, told PYMNTS this month. “If I’m a computer manufacturer and I have a bunch of chips on order from my suppliers, I can’t just change my chip supplier overnight.”

“If I have visibility into my working capital, I can negotiate better agreements and pre-buy materials like aluminum or steel,” Carey added.

“If you don’t have a centralized view of your financials, it’s tough to negotiate with an upper hand,” he said.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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It’s a shift that has played out across other sectors, too, but it’s now coming for the back office with intention. After all, remember when it took a human being to execute a stock trade?

That commission and the corresponding midday phone call to a broker has vanished, and has increasingly been replaced by zero-commission, AI-driven trade execution and instant settlement windows.

Now, enterprise back offices, which are often characterized by legacy software, sprawling manual processes and internal silos, find themselves at a similar inflection point. The question isn’t if they’ll modernize, but how fast and how far.

PYMNTS Intelligence has, for the past decade-plus, tracked enterprise digital transformation across industries and revealed that the automation of back-office functions like procurement, invoicing and reconciliation is already underway.

The bottom line is that the tools exist. The ROI is constantly being proven. All the while, the competitive pressures are building.

See also: For CFOs, the Tech Stack Is the Business Strategy

Replacing Human Handoffs With Data Intelligence

In capital markets, the digitization of trade execution removed friction points that previously required human intervention, from verifying identity to executing trades and managing settlement risk. The backbone of that transformation? Real-time data exchange, standardized protocols and algorithmic decisioning.

Enterprise back offices, by contrast, still depend heavily on email threads, PDF invoices and manual review processes. While companies may think they’ve automated just because they’ve put PDFs in a cloud folder, that’s less data intelligence and more glorified file storage.

“At any time, when you have paper, you introduce manual processes,” Duncan Lodge, global head of supply chain finance and EMEA head of trade at Bank of America, told PYMNTS. “That means someone has to extract information, process it and ensure its accuracy — introducing delays, inefficiencies and the potential for error.”

The financial sector’s shift was underpinned by machine-readable formats, API-first ecosystems and continuous data flows that enabled automation at scale. For enterprise teams, embracing structured data standards, such as ISO 20022 for payments, and investing in systems that can learn from transactional patterns is a key step toward achieving similar efficiency and efficacy.

“The really progressive companies are getting in front of [the transition to digital payments],” WEX President of Corporate Payments Eric Frankovic told PYMNTS earlier this month. “… They have to cut costs, they have to control costs, they have to keep a healthy supply chain. And in order to do that, they have to start those conversations.”

The opportunity isn’t just to digitize old processes but to reimagine what back-office operations could be in a world where AI and real-time data are the increasingly the norm. Research in the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Smart Spending: How AI Is Transforming Financial Decision Making” found that more than eight in 10 CFOs at large companies are either already using AI or considering adopting it for a core financial function like accounts payable, or the process by which companies pay their suppliers, vendors and contractors.

Read more: Trump’s Tariffs Could Act as Tailwind for Digitizing B2B Payments

Build for Composability, Not Complexity

The financial sector’s modernization didn’t succeed because it built massive new systems from scratch. It succeeded because of composability, or the ability to plug and play APIs, services and tools into existing infrastructure without rip-and-replace overhauls.

This is especially relevant for enterprises with decades-old ERP systems that underpin critical business functions. Rather than fully replacing these systems — a process that can be costly, risky and sometimes unnecessary — leaders are increasingly embracing a modular approach. That means layering new capabilities on top of existing platforms through open APIs and microservices.

Meg Garand, head of CashPro Payments and CashPro API at Bank of America, told PYMNTS last year that growing partnerships between banks and FinTechs are allowing ERP and treasury management system (TMS) providers to optimize their own software solutions.

Consider “invoice-to-pay” solutions that integrate directly with ERP platforms, enabling digital invoicing, dynamic discounting and automated reconciliation without disrupting upstream processes. There are also AI tools that sit atop procurement platforms to provide real-time benchmarking and vendor scoring.

Ultimately, enterprise leaders who apply FinTechs’s innovation mindset to their own internal operations may not just reduce costs but could build more adaptive, intelligent and future-ready organizations.

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Many businesses’ back offices and finance teams are becoming a key source of truth. Driven by the accelerated adoption of digital tools, heightened expectations for seamless experiences, and the urgent need for operational resilience, companies are rethinking how money moves across global borders and internal departments, and what that means for their own growth.

At the same time, from artificial intelligence to embedded finance, the convergence of innovation and infrastructure is rewriting the rules of engagement for banks and businesses.

What ties these developments together is a clear throughline. Digitization is no longer optional. Whether it’s enhancing customer experience, improving operational efficiency or future-proofing against risk, companies are embracing a digital-first mindset across the board.

Digital Transformation in Financial Services

Payments innovation is proving to be a mirror and map for the future of finance.

Few indicators highlight the pace of digital transformation better than the maturation of the corporate treasury landscape.

For example, Truist’s treasury management revenue saw double-digit growth year over year, driven by what Truist described as “continued payments momentum.” The bank also launched real-time payments capabilities during the first quarter, signaling its commitment to remaining competitive in a space increasingly influenced by FedNow® Service adoption, B2B digital transformation and embedded finance.

Meanwhile, Citi’s services division hit a decade-high in performance, a success the bank attributed in part to its digital transformation. By restructuring its operations to align more closely with the demands of modern financial ecosystems, Citi is betting on its ability to lead in a future defined by agility, data intelligence and streamlined client experiences.

With the proliferation of digital interfaces comes an expanding attack surface. To that end, companies are investing in new cybersecurity technologies. The launch of Capital One DataBolt, a proprietary data security solution, exemplifies this focus. Designed to integrate within an organization’s existing infrastructure, DataBolt provides real-time insights into data activity and risks, aiming to protect the institution and its customers from sophisticated threats.

Similarly, Juniper Payments is embedding AI-driven fraud prevention into its Payments Hub platform, demonstrating how machine learning can detect anomalies faster and more accurately than traditional tools. These developments signal a shift from reactive to proactive risk management, a necessity in an era where trust is a currency and competitive advantage.

The Next Frontier of B2B Payments and Procurement

Innovation in B2B payments and procurement is revealing that the inefficiencies of legacy systems are no match for today’s intelligent platforms.

LightSource, an AI-native enterprise procurement company, this week secured $33 million to scale its platform, aiming to revolutionize sourcing processes with automation and insight-driven decision making.

In parallel, Instacart Business added a pay-by-invoice feature through its partnership with Balance, reflecting a growing appetite for flexible payment methods in enterprise environments. The solution allows businesses to preserve cash flow while simplifying reconciliation processes — a critical capability in uncertain economic climates.

The travel sector is also seeing a shake-up. HBX Group launched a B2B payments platform tailored to the travel industry, enabling smoother transactions between agencies, providers and clients. These efforts are emblematic of a larger industry-wide shift toward embedded finance, where payments become a seamless, almost invisible part of broader workflows.

Investor confidence in payments innovation remains strong. Onfly, a travel and expense management platform, this week raised $40 million to scale its operations. Meanwhile, Pipe’s acquisition of Glean.ai signaled the growing convergence of payments, spend management and AI. These moves are not just about adding features; they represent a maturation of the ecosystem as companies seek to offer end-to-end financial solutions under a single umbrella.

Meanwhile, AgriDex is betting that stablecoins can modernize the $2.7 trillion global agriculture market. By launching Loam, a USD-backed stablecoin, the company aims to bring faster, more transparent transactions to a traditionally cash-heavy and cross-border industry. If successful, this could offer a model for how digital currencies can drive efficiency and trust in complex supply chains.

The Digitization Dividend

In today’s era of economic volatility, innovative payment solutions — like embedded finance, virtual cards and real-time treasury software — are enabling businesses to manage cash flow proactively, supporting resilience and adaptability.

Faster, smarter payment systems are helping companies navigate complex supply chains and volatile markets, turning payments from back-office tasks into levers for competitive advantage and operational efficiency.

Every new trade restriction coming out of the United States amplifies the inefficiencies of paper-based payments. That’s why many chief financial officers’ tech stacks are becoming their business strategies.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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The company, which operates a B2B travel technology marketplace and has a presence in 170 countries, said in a Tuesday (April 15) press release that it will launch the new HBX Group eWallet in Spain this month and then start expanding it to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in June.

The HBX Group eWallet operates similarly to a digital wallet for consumers but is designed for B2B payments, according to the release. It allows companies to store and manage payments and facilitates instant, cross-border transactions between companies.

Beyond payments, the B2B eWallet also offers integrated financing, invoice access and full transaction traceability, the release said.

Daniel Nordholm, chief product and new business officer at HBX Group, said in the release that the new platform is aimed at “modernizing B2B payments in the travel ecosystem” and setting “a new standard for efficiency and security in the sector.”

HBX Group developed the B2B eWallet in collaboration with FinPay, an eMoney institution that is regulated by the Bank of Spain. FinPay is responsible for the payment and financing services integrated into the platform, per the release.

“This collaboration with HBX Group leverages the full potential of financial technology applied to real-world business contexts,” FinPay CEO Juan Antonio Soriano said in the release.

While B2B payments between merchants and the end-providers of services are a fundamental part of the travel and tourism sectors, the management and execution of these payments can be very complex, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Smart Receivables Playbook: Rethinking Payments Processing After the Pandemic.”

The report found that 20% of travel and tourism businesses said B2B payouts are a very or extremely significant pain point, and another 43% said they are a somewhat significant pain point. Only 38% of these businesses said B2B payouts are slightly or not at all significant as a pain point.

Digital innovations can help these businesses reimagine their approaches to accounts receivable and accounts payable optimization and position themselves for success on the international stage, the report said.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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For decades, payments have been the underappreciated plumbing of commerce, something viewed as essential but rarely strategic. Today, that paradigm has shifted dramatically. Against a backdrop where economic volatility has become the norm rather than the exception, “all-weather” businesses are increasingly seen as the gold standard.

These companies are not just surviving in the face of macroeconomic shocks, geopolitical unrest and fluctuating consumer sentiment. They are thriving.

The secret sauce behind their resilience? A quiet but powerful revolution in payments innovation that is providing businesses with the ability to manage their cash flow with precision and flexibility.

The shift is subtle but profound. Finance, once reactive by design, is becoming anticipatory.

Read more: Trump’s Global Tariffs Position CFOs as New Supply Chain Architects

Working Capital is the Lifeblood of Resilience

Working capital innovations are helping businesses plan for the future while simultaneously navigating today’s complexities. In sectors like manufacturing and retail, where delays can cascade into million-dollar losses, the speed and reliability of payments can mean the difference between resilience and ruin.

Visa and PYMNTS Intelligence created a dynamic benchmarking report that can help users take a deeper look into how their DPO (days payable outstanding) and other metrics stack up against peers and outperformers within their chosen industries.

”We need high-growth businesses to survive and thrive [in this uncertain economy],”Lucy Demery, senior vice president, head of Visa Commercial Solutions, Europe, said to PYMNTS, noting that embedded options are proving to be a “huge unlock for supply chain payments.”

Faster, smarter payments can also enable new business models. Subscription services, gig economy platforms and decentralized finance ecosystems all rely on innovative payment infrastructure to operate efficiently and scale rapidly. By turning to embedded finance offerings such buy now, pay later (BNPL) and other flexible B2B offerings like virtual cards, businesses can use payments as a tool for differentiation.

“The really progressive companies are getting in front of [the transition to virtual card],” WEX President of Corporate Payments Eric Frankovic told PYMNTS this month. “… They have to cut costs, they have to control costs, they have to keep a healthy supply chain. And in order to do that, they have to start those conversations.”

As globalization meets fragmentation, businesses face mounting challenges in managing cross-border payments. Tariffs, currency fluctuations and shifting trade alliances complicate traditional payment flows. Modern payment platforms equipped with multi-currency capabilities, localized compliance features and API-based integrations can help to streamline these frictions.

“Treasury software, for example, now allows us to reconcile cash across dozens — if not close to 100 — bank accounts in hours instead of days,” Hometap CFO Tom Egan told PYMNTS in an earlier conversation. “This functionality is massive.”

Beyond internal efficiency, payments innovation is reshaping the customer experience by enabling faster onboarding of new partners and more resilient procurement strategies. The latest PYMNTS Intelligence in the March 2025 “Business Payments Tracker®” series reveals that in a push to modernize business payments and mirror the seamless experience consumers enjoy, companies are merging virtual cards with mobile wallets.

See also: For CFOs, the Tech Stack Is the Business Strategy

The Strategic Imperative of Transformation

Perhaps the most underestimated benefit of payments innovation is the treasure trove of data it unlocks. Transaction data, when analyzed effectively, can yield insights into customer behavior, supplier reliability, cash flow trends and macroeconomic indicators.

Advanced analytics and dashboards embedded within payment platforms allow finance and operations teams to identify patterns, flag anomalies and forecast trends with greater confidence. In an environment where agility often trumps scale, this intelligence can give companies a competitive edge.

Despite the clear benefits, many companies still treat payments as a back-office function. That mindset is increasingly outdated. Payments should be viewed as a strategic lever — a key enabler of resilience, agility and growth, particularly for all-weather businesses.

As we navigate a complex and interconnected world, the role of payments will only grow more central. With technologies like blockchain, programmable money and central bank digital currencies on the horizon, the next wave of innovation promises even greater resilience and adaptability.

Those benefits could be crucial, particularly for smaller businesses. In the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Brewing Storm: Why 1 in 5 Smaller Businesses Without Financing Fear They May Not Survive Tariffs, the 560 small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) surveyed gave a glimpse into the state of affairs:

Amid macro turbulence not seen in years, and tariffs that have not been at this (threatened) level in more than a century, the data shows that just 36% had access to readily available cash, including another 8% that also had cash in the bank.

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This pay-by-invoice offering is enabled by a new integration of Balance’s financial infrastructure for B2B businesses with the Instacart platform, the companies said in a Tuesday (April 15) press release.

“We heard from our Instacart Business customers that they need greater flexibility to manage their payments and operations more efficiently,” Andrew Nodes, vice president and general manager of Instacart Business and Supply Chain, said in the release. “That’s why we’re introducing pay-by-invoice to deliver solutions tailored to their unique needs.”

Instacart launched Instacart Business in February 2023, saying this B2B delivery service offered a choice of 30-minute delivery, same-day delivery or discounted longer delivery of items ranging from office supplies to snacks.

With Balance’s white-labeled solution, Instacart has full control of the user journey, according to the Tuesday press release.

Balance works behind the scenes to manage the invoice-to-cash process, including onboarding, risk assessment, billing, collections and cash application, the release said.

When a transaction is approved, Balance assumes the credit risk and guarantees payment, per the release.

Balance CEO and co-founder Bar Geron said in the release that the partnership delivers “a flexible B2B solution that empowers Instacart Business customers with more purchasing power and a streamlined payment process.”

FashionGo said in March 2024 that it partnered with Balance to launch a net terms solution for buyers on its online B2B wholesale marketplace for the fashion industry, with Balance addressing the financial requirements of B2B businesses.

The marketplace’s Dynamic Net Terms solution uses each buyer’s business profile and financial history to qualify them for funds; enables them to access net 60, 45 or 30 days, with no penalties or late fees; and increases buyers’ credit as they build their order history and maintain on-time payments on the FashionGo platform.

Geron said at the time in a press release: “Our focus is on enabling FashionGo to build a platform that facilitates the growth of all retailers in online wholesale purchasing, overcoming the limitations of the existing payment solutions today.”

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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The company will use the funding to scale its team, continue enhancing its platform’s capabilities and expand its reach into new sectors, LightSource said in a Tuesday press release.

“We want to make the easy things easier and the hard things possible by scaling our AI-powered solutions and converting procurement from a necessary evil to a critical business driver,” LightSource Co-founder and CEO Spencer Penn said in the release.

LightSource’s platform offers the benefits of digitalization in an area — sourcing — that is often managed with manual processes and disparate information that includes emails, spreadsheets and randomly formatted invoices and contracts, according to the release.

For buyers, the platform automates the processes of identifying potential suppliers, managing requests for quotes (RFQs), comparing bids and helping teams collaborate, the release said.

For suppliers, it makes it easier to review RFQs and respond with competitive quotes, per the release.

LightSource has secured contracts with major enterprises, according to the release. Since 2024, its platform has processed over $1 billion in spend and facilitated more than 1,100 sourcing events.

“LightSource comes at a critical time amid global trade uncertainty and volatility, highlighting the need for robust and agile procurement tools,” the release said. “This environment underscores the critical need for software solutions that provide real-time visibility into supply chains, enable scenario planning and facilitate agile decision-making.”

Businesses across industries have upped their investments in technologies to support procurement processes, and many of those that have been slow to do so now plan to increase their spending on procurement platforms, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Corcentric collaboration, “Digital Payments: Modernizing Procurement Processes.”

The report found that as of 2023, 31% of retailers are already investing in procurement systems, and another 53% plan to do so.

Among manufacturers, 42% of companies are already investing in upgrading their procurement technology and another 44% plan to invest in this area.

Many of these companies aim to improve their real-time inventory information and supply chain analytics, according to the report.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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