EU FinTechs offer digital services for B2B payments

Europe’s PayTechs are building sector-specific technologies to increase security in the B2B payment space

Depending on the industry, business-to-business (B2B) payments require different security measures to safeguard their systems.

And with fraud remaining a top concern for B2B firms, adopting the right payment technology is increasingly critical to protecting businesses’ bottom lines.

For example, 47% of B2B firms have reported that their growth is being held back due to fraud risks while 54% of B2B businesses intentionally turned away new clients at least once last year over security concerns.

To help give businesses peace of mind, Europe’s PayTechs are building sector-specific technologies to increase security in the B2B payment space.

For example, commercial real estate transactions often turn to third-party escrow accounts to manage counterparty risks, increase trust, and enable more dynamic funding arrangements. And while banks once had a monopoly on these escrow transactions, a new generation of FinTech players have entered the fray, offering digital services for a variety of B2B payments.

In Europe, companies like Mangopay and ShieldPay now offer escrow as part of their suite of B2B payment services, each catering to the security needs of specific niches.

ShieldPay, for example, was first launched as a payment solution for the legal and professional services industries and has gained traction powering digital real estate transactions in the U.K.

Earlier this month, the company announced a new partnership with Dutch payment FinTech Mollie that will see the two companies collaborate on providing fully digital end-to-end B2B payment services.

ShieldPay’s clients will now be able to incorporate online payment links into their invoices, allowing the customer to click and pay instantly via Mollie.

Together, Shieldpay’s digital escrow solution and Mollie’s expertise in real-time payments tackle two of the biggest pain points in B2B transactions — security concerns and slow legacy payment rails.

While escrow payments are popular in European property markets, other types of B2B transactions have different security needs.

Catering to digital platforms, Luxembourg-based payments company Mangopay has designed a suite of anti-fraud tools specifically for online marketplaces such as Malt, which connects businesses to freelancers across various industries.

Besides compliance, know your customer (KYC) and know your business (KYB) systems are critical anti-fraud measures, which in the case of Malt, gives businesses an important assurance that contractors are who they say they are and not fraudsters hiding behind a false identity.