Paper.id, one of Indonesia’s largest B2B invoicing start-ups with US$640 million in invoices processed since the start of the year, has announced the launch of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) for small to medium businesses. For customers that opt-out of financing, merchants can still take advantage of BNPL through a new feature called ‘Get Paid Faster’ (GPF). These features will provide desperately needed financing to more than 200,000 SMEs in Indonesia.
Paper.id is releasing these products to address a major pain point of SMEs coming out of COVID-19. Many SMEs had to constrict their business activities under COVID-19 and are finding it hard to ramp up with new consumer demand without a source of capital financing.
Post-pandemic, payment liquidity to suppliers is currently at 75 days, 32% slower than pre-pandemic rates according to research by Atradius. This creates strain on cash flow across the supply chain. Due to cash flow constraints, an average of one or two retail businesses goes out of business in Indonesia each day.
“Based on our own internal data, most SME B2B buyers only have the option of paying their suppliers through cash or bank transfer. We unlock more options for the buyer with a BNPL and digital payment options, including credit card, regardless if the supplier actually provides payment terms or not,” said Yosia Sugialam, Co-Founder of Paper.id.
The product flow can begin from either the supplier or a buyer. If a supplier wants to utilise the Get Paid Faster product, it can start by invoicing its buyer through Paper.id invoicing platform. Then, the buyer can acknowledge that the invoice is correct and contain the right information such as the quantity, product information and price. Validated invoices by validated suppliers and buyers, can seamlessly get instant payment from Paper.id ahead of its supposed payment term with a small fee.
Similarly, from the buyer side, the buyer can input a purchase invoice or pay-out request to pay their suppliers with the digital payment options, including credit card, provided by Paper.id, regardless of the fact that their suppliers have such payment option or not. Should the buyer require a term extension, they can seamlessly opt into the BNPL payment method that Paper.id provides, then repay later. Instead of paying at purchase, or even within 1 week, buyers can set a payment plan to extend payment by 30 days.
“The current state of the pandemic provides a unique opportunity for us to further help the SMEs back in business and bring more options for them to alleviate their cash flow crunch both operationally and financially,” added Jeremy Limman, Co-Founder and CEO, Paper.id.
Click below to share this article