Indian B2B digital payments company PayMate has announced its entry into the UAE market.

The company will be stepping foot into the UAE in collaboration with Visa and Citi, according to a statement. The move is part of an existing collaboration between Visa and PayMate.

With the move, PayMate will be extending automated payments and cash flow management to enterprises and their vendors in the UAE.

PayMate provides B2B payment automation and working capital solutions. In addition to the UAE, the company is looking to expand into the CEMEA region as a Visa certified Business Payment Solution Provider.

PayMate automates B2B payments

The partnership will enable businesses in the UAE to manage payables and receivables through PayMate’s end-to-end payments automation technology. Buyers will be able to avail extended Days Payable Outstanding while supporting early supplier payments.

Meanwhile, payments will be auto-reconciled on the PayMate platform in real-time, along with reports. UAE-based corporates will also be able to access Citibank-issued Visa corporate cards.

“A core element of Citi’s strategy is providing our customers with innovative and efficient global payment options — and corporate clients are progressively exploring payment facilitator/PSP models to streamline their supplier payments within the Business-to-Business (B2B) domain.

The payment facilitator model enables corporates to optimise their working capital benefits and strengthen supplier relationships. Citi is at the forefront of working with payment facilitators to open up new payment flows to Commercial Cards,”

Vivek Vaidyanathan, Treasury and Trade Solutions Head, Citi UAE, said.

Payment settlement and management is a problem for businesses located in the UAE. It was reported in June this year that 60% of B2B invoices by UAE businesses were not settled on time. This was considerably higher than the average of 50% across all of Asia.

A number of companies have announced initiatives to address this space. For instance, Mastercard rolled out its Mastercard Track payment service with HSBC to digitise and automate B2B payments for the latter’s clients. FAB also signed a five-year contract with Mastercard earlier this year to enable commercial cards and payments solutions for B2B payments.