B2B PAYMENTSBarclays Backs Crowdz B2B Procurement Platform With Payments Tech

Barclaycard has partnered with Silicon Valley startup Crowds to make the process of selling and finding business services easier. While consumer payments have been revolutionized through mobile technology, Barclays points out that things have been slower in the business-to-business (B2B) space. In fact, only one in four transactions in the supply chain are digitized. Instead, selling or finding business services usually means searching through a catalog, making phone calls, invoicing via paper and dealing with old payment systems. That has led to more than $4 trillion in lost sales and unnecessary costs every year. Crowd's online marketplace connects businesses digitally, making it easier to find suppliers and sell to other businesses. It also facilitates the selling of invoices and purchase orders, allowing for faster payments. Transactions are secure, taking “place over a tamper-proof Ethereum blockchain.” “Recent innovation in the consumer payments area has not been enjoyed in the business-to-business payments market,” said Ed Black, director of strategy & innovation at Barclaycard, in a press release. “This is largely due to cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive processes on legacy systems, making it a very complex environment to improve. Working with Crowds, we are pushing the boundaries to offer a state-of-the-art, digital solution for B2B payments that will enable everybody in the supply to chain to thrive.”