FinTech companies eNett International and Invoice Bazaar partner to streamline supplier payments for travel companies

March 20, 2017

eNett International, a global provider of dedicated B2B travel payment solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Invoice Bazaar, a FinTech Supply Chain Finance platform based in the United Arab Emirates. The partnership will make faster, easier and safer supplier payments with eNett Virtual Account Numbers (VANs) even more accessible for Middle East Travel Agents.

A VAN is a 16 digit Mastercard number that can be used to pay hotels, low cost airlines and other travel related services securely. By integrating with travel agency booking and back-end accounting tools, VANs allow payments from within the booking workflow for more efficient, lower cost supplier payments. As part of the agreement, Invoice Bazaar will facilitate cash flow as part of the offering to a select group of Travel Agents by optimising their payment processes.

Connect World Travel & Tourism, a leading Destination Management Company in UAE, is among the first clients being offered this service. “The product is not new to us as we were using a similar product from a leading global bank. However, we are pleased with the unique features offered on the eNett platform including automated reconciliation. Added to this are the service oriented Invoice Bazaar staff who supported us with the switch,” says Justin Jacob, Managing Director of Connect World Travel & Tourism.

“We found Invoice Bazaar to be a perfect fit as they understand the product, geography and benefits Travel Agents in the Middle East can experience by switching to VANs. Our VANs combined with Invoice Bazaar’s offering enables more Travel Agents to streamline and automate supplier payments, freeing up valuable time to spend with customers,” said Anthony Hynes, Managing Director and CEO of eNett International.

Invoice Bazaar has a strong pipeline of deals across this unique proposition and has already signed up two Travel Agents as part of the pilot program. Invoice Bazaar, a FinTech venture which primarily has offerings of Supply Chain Finance solutions, has added this partnership to its portfolio by being able to meet the supplier payment requirements of Travel Agents. “As most of our team has worked with global banks like Citi and HSBC, we understand the transformation that Virtual Account Numbers can bring in the travel industry. Less than 2% of Travel Agents in the Middle East use Virtual Cards to make payments which clearly indicates a lack of awareness among the travel fraternity. With VANs, Travel Agents can forget the archaic ways of making fund transfers and manual reconciliation” says Anand Nagaraj, Founder & CEO of Invoice Bazaar.