Mastercard partners with EnKash to expand B2B payments in India

Business-to-Business digital payments in the developing world have lagged behind, with many still relying on cash-based payment methods. To break this, payment companies are trying to incentivize businesses to get on board with digital payments.

In such, India based B2B payments solution provider, EnKash has entered into a partnership with Mastercard to ‘expand the usage and acceptance of commercial cards in India’. Under this partnership, the service will be embedded into suppliers’ services, which would help them to accept and send payments using the Mastercard network, especially for small and medium enterprises.

Last year, SBM Bank India partnered with YAP, EnKash and RuPay to launch the SBM EnKash RuPay Business Card in India.

Commercial cards have seen an increased adoption across Indian businesses, large and small, as an effective payment option to protect and digitize supplier payments, drive savings with longer time to pay, enhance controls and simplify reconciliation, the press release noted, however, it also pointed out that limited penetration of B2B payments have led to businesses missing out on innovative B2B payment solutions.

“EnKash serves as a catalyst for businesses to facilitate payments to its suppliers and/or do business transactions using their commercial cards. Such benefits help drive business operational efficiencies”, said Hemant Vishnoi, Co-founder, EnKash.

Businesses using  EnKash digital platform and Mastercard payment network would be able to leverage on unutilized credit lines to pay core and non-core payments. The timely payments would help them in their cash flow, the press release noted.

The partnership would also enable banks to generate greater spends on commercial cards. Businesses would have a better ‘control, compliance and security to enhance efficiencies in strategic purchases and larger payments’.

According to the press release, Mastercard has invested $34.2 million to help small businesses in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company hopes to drive commercial cards adoption with this partnership.