Unlocking the Future of B2B Fintech: Mercoa's Accounts Payable API

Are you a B2B fintech looking to revolutionize the way your customers manage their business finances? Do you want to provide a seamless Accounts Payable (AP) and BillPay experience, all in one place? Meet Mercoa, the game-changing startup founded in 2022 by industry veterans Sai Arora and Sandeep Dinesh. In this article, we'll delve deep into Mercoa's innovative solution and explore how it's poised to transform the B2B fintech landscape.

Who Are the Visionaries Behind Mercoa?

Sai Arora: From Bill.com to Mercoa

Sai Arora, one of the founders of Mercoa, boasts an impressive background in the fintech sphere. Before setting his sights on Mercoa, he held pivotal roles at renowned companies like Bill.com, Adobe, and Gusto. With a proven track record of driving product innovation, Sai's journey eventually led him to the world of neobanking.

At Bill.com, Sai played a pivotal role in integrating the platform with a neobank and led the Instant Transfer line of business. These experiences gave him firsthand insights into the challenges B2B neobanks face in delivering BillPay services to their customers.

Sandeep Dinesh: A Tech Maestro with a Purpose

Sandeep Dinesh, the other co-founder of Mercoa, brings a wealth of technical expertise to the table. His previous roles include Senior Software Engineer at Stripe, Lead Software Engineer at Furmacy (YC W21), and Senior Developer Advocate at Google Cloud.

Sandeep's technical acumen and entrepreneurial spirit made him a perfect fit for Mercoa's mission to disrupt the B2B fintech space.

What Inspired the Birth of Mercoa?

The Rise of B2B Vertical SaaS and Fintech Platforms

The world of fintech is evolving rapidly, with B2B vertical SaaS and fintech platforms gaining prominence. These platforms cater to businesses and enterprises, offering a wide range of financial services.

Sai Arora, during his tenure at Bill.com, noticed a critical gap in the market. While B2B neobanks were eager to offer BillPay services to their customers, existing systems like Bill.com were ill-suited for embedded use cases. This mismatch sparked the idea for Mercoa—a specialized solution for B2B fintechs seeking to digitize their AP and BillPay processes.

A Monumental Opportunity: $25 Trillion in Annual Business Payments

Mercoa's founders saw a monumental opportunity in the digitization of B2B BillPay. In the United States alone, approximately $25 trillion in annual business payments remained ripe for transformation. The global potential for disruption was even more substantial.

With this vision in mind, Mercoa embarked on a journey to create a comprehensive solution that would empower B2B fintechs to embrace the digital future of finance.

How Does Mercoa Transform B2B Fintech?

The Essence of Mercoa: Accounts Payable & BillPay API

Mercoa is much more than just another fintech startup—it's the future of B2B BillPay and AP. At its core, Mercoa offers an API tailored for Accounts Payable, specifically designed to empower B2B fintechs.

The startup's primary goal is to enable B2B platforms to seamlessly provide BillPay and Accounts Payable services to their customers. Whether through a drop-in iframe or API integration, Mercoa offers fintechs a single platform to manage and pay invoices efficiently.

Addressing the Crucial Problem: Monetizing Payments Out

B2B fintechs aspire to be the one-stop-shop for their customers' financial needs. In this quest, they excel at helping customers receive payments, often monetizing incoming payments effortlessly.

However, facilitating invoice and bill payments poses a more intricate challenge. Building the necessary software infrastructure for payment processing is complex, and monetizing payments out can be elusive.

The Key to Success: Monetizing Payments Out

Mercoa identified the golden ticket to success in B2B BillPay: offering premium payment options that help customers maintain cash flow while ensuring vendors receive timely payments.

These premium options include:

Allowing users to pay invoices by credit card.
Facilitating payments via ACH (Automated Clearing House).
Supporting Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options.

The Eight Essential Components of BillPay

To offer premium payment options effectively, businesses need a comprehensive software experience. Mercoa has identified eight crucial components that must seamlessly integrate to create this experience:

Invoice and bill management.
Payment scheduling.
Vendor payment preferences.
And more.

The Pitfalls of Piecemeal Solutions

Many companies attempt to piece together solutions, opting for quick launches without considering the holistic user experience. The consequence? An endless cycle of optimization without a clear path to monetization.

Some founders shared stories of spending three years optimizing their BillPay experience, while others had to abandon their efforts altogether.

Mercoa's Solution: A Seamless White-Labeled BillPay Experience

Mercoa offers a white-labeled, embedded BillPay experience that simplifies the integration process for businesses. With Mercoa's drop-in iframe or API, fintechs can provide their users with a unified platform to:

Manage open invoices and bills.
Schedule payments.
Invite vendors to choose their preferred payment method.

The Power of Choice: Multiple Payment Options

When fintechs adopt Mercoa's AP solution, their users gain the flexibility to pay invoices in multiple ways, including:

Credit card payments.
ACH transfers.
BNPL options.

Vendors also benefit from choice, as they can receive payments through methods like checks, ACH, or virtual cards.

One of the most compelling aspects of Mercoa's offering is its revenue-sharing model. Whenever a user or vendor selects a premium payment option, Mercoa shares the generated revenue with the partnering fintech.

This innovative approach aligns the success of fintechs with the success of their users, creating a win-win scenario.

The Vision: A Payments Orchestration Engine

Mercoa aspires to be more than just an AP and BillPay solution. It envisions itself as a payments orchestration engine that can power a wide array of BillPay and Accounts Payable processes.

By decoupling bill payment transactions and offering choice to both payers and vendors, Mercoa aims to reshape the future of B2B BillPay.

Conclusion: Mercoa's Journey Towards a Digital B2B Revolution

As we journey through the evolving landscape of B2B fintech, Mercoa stands out as a beacon of innovation and transformation. Founded in 2022 by two visionary leaders, Sai Arora and Sandeep Dinesh, Mercoa is on a mission to revolutionize the way B2B fintechs manage Accounts Payable and BillPay.

In a world where the digitization of business payments is still in its early stages, Mercoa offers a seamless solution that empowers fintechs to be the one-stop-shop for their customers' financial needs. With its white-labeled, embedded BillPay experience, diverse payment options, and revenue-sharing model, Mercoa is not just a fintech startup—it's the catalyst for change in the B2B fintech arena.

The journey has just begun, and the future of B2B BillPay and AP looks brighter than ever, thanks to Mercoa's innovative approach and unwavering commitment to transforming the financial industry.

Are you ready to embark on this transformative journey with Mercoa? The world of B2B fintech is waiting for pioneers like you to join the revolution.