Visa, the world’s leading digital payments technology company, announced on Thursday (8 Oct) that it has teamed up with Stripe, a technology company that builds the economic infrastructure for the internet, to introduce a new set of solutions to help businesses pay and be paid on time.
The new solutions will be on the Visa Payables Automation platform, which allows buyers to enrol, manage, and pay suppliers digitally with a Visa commercial card.
This new feature, which is powered by Stripe Connect, the technology company’s solution for multi-sided marketplaces and platforms, enables buyers on Visa Payables Automation to pay suppliers who are unable to accept digital payments easily and securely through the use of a virtual Visa card.
This helps bring suppliers who are not plugged into the traditional banking infrastructure into the digital economy.
“When a buyer needs to pay a supplier, the enhanced Visa Payables Automation platform allows seamless digital payments experience. The supplier will be prompted to register with Stripe Connect, provide a bank account number, and start accepting payments,” said Chavi Jafa, Head of Business Solutions for Asia Pacific at Visa.
“Migrating to digital payments benefits both buyers and suppliers, as it eliminates manual processing and enhances reconciliation. This improves productivity while reducing errors and fraud. It also allows buyers and suppliers to better manage their working capital, utilising a Visa Commercial Card,” she added.
“We’re excited to see Visa leverage the power of Stripe Connect to facilitate complex payments flows,” said Noah Pepper, Stripe’s Business Lead for Asia Pacific.
“Less than 10 per cent of commerce is online today, and that number is much lower in the B2B space. And when you consider the web has been around for over a quarter of a century, it’s clear that we’ve barely scratched the surface! We are always excited to work with forward thinking companies in developing better tooling for businesses wanting to accelerate their shift to online,” he added.
Citi client, Jebhealth, is the first user of the integrated Visa Payables and Stripe Connect solution.
As an online marketplace for healthcare services, Jebhealth uses the solution to facilitate payments for its clients to healthcare service providers on its platform. By using the solution, health service providers are onboarded, just once, via Stripe Connect to become card-accepting merchants.
This novel solution is now rolled out in phases and will benefit individuals, corporates and healthcare providers, and ecosystem partners in a virtual integrated pay-out network
“The Jebhealth team believes strongly in value creation, innovation and social good. In the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic, the whole solution was conceptualised, developed and launched with the help of Citi, Visa, and Stripe, while working from home,” said Jimmy Boey, Founder & CEO of Jebhealth.
“With this integrated digital payment method, employees, students and domestic helpers no longer need to bring a medical chit or cash to pay at the clinic desk whenever they visit the clinics for check-ups. This ensures every clinic visit is shorter and smoother and less exposure from the community,” he added.
When Jebhealth initiates a payment, a single-use virtual Citi-Visa commercial card is generated. The virtual card is then sent to the receiving healthcare service provider, after which the provider ‘charges’ the virtual card to accept and complete payment through their Stripe Connect account.
By using a Citi-Visa virtual card, in addition to enabling digital payments, the solution ensures added safety and security. Jebhealth is able to set transaction limits on the virtual cards, including permitted current and merchant types.
This new service is now available in 30 markets around the world.