B2B Payments: The Rise of New Platform Players

New players in B2B payments: the revolution coming from platforms

From tech giants to supply chain platforms, the B2B payments landscape is being redrawn

For years, B2B payments were the preserve of banks and legacy systems. Today, they’re undergoing a major shift, driven by unexpected players. Technology platforms, digital logistics providers, fintechs... These newcomers aren’t just disrupting the sector: they’re redefining how companies pay, finance, and manage cash flow.

This shift isn’t just technological. It’s also reshaping the balance of power: the company that controls the platform where business happens increasingly controls the payment flow that follows.

Tech is moving into corporate finance

Amazon, Google, and Apple are no longer just consumer brands. They’re now moving into the core of B2B financial operations.

Amazon, through Amazon Business (more than $35 billion in annual sales in 2023 according to Statista), goes far beyond a simple purchasing marketplace. It now offers credit services through Amazon Lending, which has already provided more than $5 billion in loans to partner SMBs. The company is becoming a financing player for businesses operating on its platform.

Apple, meanwhile, is quietly advancing in the B2B space. Its Apple Business Essentials offering combines fleet management, support, and cloud storage, along with financing options for businesses. Its Apple Pay Later product, originally designed for consumers, lays the groundwork for installment payment models that can be adapted to B2B transactions.

Google plays a more structural role by building infrastructure. With Google Pay for Business and partnerships with players like Synapse and Plaid, it creates bridges between payment systems and merchant ecosystems, especially in emerging markets. This kind of infrastructure can easily be applied to more complex B2B use cases.

These companies aren’t entering finance by becoming banks. They’re doing it by embedding financial services directly into management platforms, leveraging their command of data and user experience.

Logistics and procurement platforms are becoming payment hubs

Logistics and procurement platforms didn’t start out in finance. And yet, they’re now among the most innovative players in B2B payments.

Flexport, originally a digital freight forwarder, now offers invoice financing, customs advances, and export credit services. According to its own figures, more than 40% of its enterprise customers use its financial services to better manage cash flow.

Coupa and SAP Ariba, leaders in procurement software, now integrate payment modules and early financing options. Thanks to the wealth of transactional data they manage — purchase orders, deliveries, approved invoices — these platforms are ideally positioned to offer embedded finance, such as dynamic discounting or conditional payments.

Tradeshift, finally, combines supplier management, invoicing, and supply chain finance in a single interface. By connecting buyers, suppliers, and financiers, it turns procurement into a lever for working capital management. Its collaboration with HSBC and Santander clearly illustrates the trend: banks are now integrating into third-party ecosystems instead of forcing their own interfaces.

These platforms are changing the role of payments: from a separate process, they’re becoming a native component of operations management.

Traditional banks are struggling to keep up

Against this backdrop, retail banks are losing ground. Their model still relies on fragmented infrastructure — SWIFT, SEPA, manual transfers — that is costly and slow to adapt. Their interfaces haven’t evolved at the pace expected by SMBs and procurement teams.

Meanwhile, fintechs like Stripe, Airwallex, and Adyen have turned payments into programmable infrastructure. Through APIs, they offer multicurrency payments, automated flows, cash management... all features that are now standard for digital businesses.

Stripe Treasury, for example, lets marketplaces or SaaS platforms manage complex payment flows like a bank... without actually being one. The fintech becomes both the infrastructure and the product.

Players like Bill.com, Melio, and Payoneer speak directly to SMBs, with simple, fast interfaces connected to their management tools. According to Deloitte (2023), 60% of mid-sized companies plan to switch their B2B payment provider by 2025, mainly because of the user experience offered by banks.

In response, some banks are choosing to cooperate. JP Morgan’s investment in Taulia and its acquisition of Volkswagen’s payment platform illustrate this shift in positioning: integrate into the flow, rather than trying to contain it.

The platform is becoming the entry point for payments

This broader shift goes beyond simply changing providers. It points to a reconfiguration of the B2B infrastructure: payments are moving away from the bank and toward the platform where business happens.

For finance and procurement teams, that changes everything:

• Payments no longer go through a banking portal, but directly from an ERP or procurement tool.

• Financing is triggered automatically from transactional data.

• Payments become a strategic lever for cash flow management.

According to Bain & Company (2023), embedded finance in B2B could generate $500 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with most of it captured by non-bank platforms.

So the value no longer sits with the company that executes the payment, but with the company that owns the context. Amazon Business, SAP Ariba, and Flexport are no longer just service providers: they’re becoming the new centers of gravity in B2B finance.

References

• Deloitte (2023). Digital transformation in B2B payments

• McKinsey & Company (2022). The new growth engine in B2B payments

• Statista (2024). Amazon Business annual sales

• Forbes (2023). Flexport’s fintech evolution

• Harvard Business Review (2021). Why Big Tech is banking on financial services

• Bain & Company (2023). Embedded finance in B2B ecosystems

• Tradeshift (2022). Quarterly Index: Supply Chain Finance Trends

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