Treasurers should be on the front lines of keeping their company financially healthy. But how many are in an organization that allows for that?

PYMNTS Intelligence finds that many companies fall short of empowering their treasurers to have maximum impact. In fact, more than 8 in 10 treasurers say that at least one department in their company would benefit from closer collaboration with them.

Why does this matter? In short, companies with treasurers who have greater influence and integration into business operations reap many benefits. They have more predictable cash flows, expect revenue increases and are agile in responding to market conditions.

These are some of the findings explored in “Why Treasurers’ Influence Matters,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Citi collaboration. This report explores the relationship between the level of influence a treasurer has and their company’s business outcomes. It draws on a survey of 500 executives, including treasurers and non-treasurers, conducted from April 9 to May 28.

Inside “Why Treasurers’ Influence Matters”:

• The relationship between a treasurer’s influence and revenue outlooks and cash flows
• How influential treasurers lead to adaptable responses to changing market conditions
• Non-treasurer executives’ perceptions of the revenue estimates based on their treasurer’s influence
• The share of treasurers and non-treasurers calling for greater interdepartmental collaboration
• What benefits treasurers expect from greater cross-department collaboration
• Insights into non-treasury executives’ misperceptions of the treasurer’s role compared to the CFO’s
• Barriers treasury and non-treasury executives cite that limit collaboration

Collaboration can empower treasurers to have maximum impact on their organizations. Download the report to learn more about what integrating treasurers can do for your organization.

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The British FinTech is close to a deal that would see it sell roughly $500 million in employee-owned shares, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (July 23), citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report noted that the sale is an indicator of rising confidence in the FinTech space. 

Revolut is already the world’s second most-valuable FinTech startup next to Stripe, and this sale would increase its valuation by more than a third.

The Financial Times (FT) had reported whispers of a share sale last month. Separate reports said CEO Nikolay Storonsky was selling a “small portion” of his stake in the company as part of that share sale.

When reached by PYMNTS, Revolut declined to comment.

The sale, if completed, could be announced in the coming days and would set the stage for an initial public offering (IPO), the WSJ report said. 

Assuming Revolut is ready to go public, it’s not a given that the company will do so in its home country, as chairman Martin Gilbert said earlier this month that he wasn’t ready to commit to a London IPO, even as he praised pending changes to the rules for listing on the U.K. market.

“All the moves [regulators] are making are good, they’re allowing founder-led companies like Revolut to list here rather than just have no choice,” Gilbert said. “But again let’s see how it all pans out, the proof will definitely be what happens in the future.”

He added that Revolut was at least a year away from going public, with the company planning to “keep an open mind” on where its listing would happen.

These comments marked a change from the views put forth by Storonsky, who had ruled out an IPO in London. Revolut’s U.K. CEO, Francesca Carlesi, had indicated a London listing was still possible earlier this year.

“The U.K. is our home and is also one where a lot of our investors come from,” Carlesi said. “We know that companies are always better off to list where their biggest market is.”

The post Report: Revolut Could Hit $45 Billion Valuation After Share Sale appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Economic damages from the event, which crippled industries and inconvenienced consumers around the world, could amount to tens of billions of dollars, Reuters reported Friday (July 19).

Nir Perry, CEO at cyber insurance risk platform CyberWrite, said in the report that the outage should be considered an “event that can produce what could be defined as an insurance catastrophe.”

At the same time, not all businesses’ lost time and money will be covered by insurance, according to the report.

Coverage for an event like this could be something that would have to be purchased separately, the businesses’ insurance policy could exclude non-malicious events, or there could be deductibles and waiting periods, the report said.

Law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth wrote in a Friday blog post that firms affected by the outage should check their insurance policies.

“If you have been impacted by today’s outage, we recommend reviewing your company’s cyber insurance program to determine whether your losses may qualify for coverage,” the post said. “Prompt notice is critical to obtaining coverage under your cyber insurance policy, so check your policy today.”

As PYMNTS reported earlier on Friday, the outage struck users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system late Thursday and early Friday and was caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s software update.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a Friday post on X: “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…

— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Microsoft said it was “aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform,” Bloomberg reported Friday.

The impact of the outage was global and spread across industries.

For example, both UPS and FedEx told their customers Friday that package deliveries may be delayed due to the software outage.

Hospitals were also among the organizations hit hard by the software outage, with Bloomberg reporting Friday that without the digital systems they normally use, they are having trouble booking patient appointments and checking medical records, pausing the start of procedures that require anesthesia, canceling elective procedures and closing outpatient clinics.

The post Microsoft Outage Could Produce ‘Insurance Catastrophe’ appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Sequoia Capital is offering to buy shares from investors that want to cash out, Bloomberg reported Monday (July 15), citing unnamed sources. The venture capital firm is offering $27.51 for Stripe shares and will purchase up to $861 million in shares.

Stripe is one of the most valuable private tech companies. It was valued at $65 billion following a deal that let current and former employees cash out some of their shares, the report said. The company was worth $50 billion last March, although that figure is below the $95 billion Stripe achieved in 2021.

Stripe declined to comment when reached by PYMNTS Monday afternoon.

Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick Collison and John Collison, last month said it would begin allowing employees to sell their shares. John Collison noted the company is in no rush to launch an initial public offering (IPO).

Although analysts have closely watched Stripe and other FinTech veterans, waiting to see when and how they may go public, John Collison said many firms go public too early and Stripe remains committed to developing products and opportunities to grow the business.

Stripe reported in March that it exceeded $1 trillion in total payment volume in 2023, a number that was 25% higher than the previous year, and that businesses running on Stripe made up about 1% of global gross domestic product.

“Stripe was robustly cash flow positive in 2023 and expects to be again in 2024,” the founders wrote in the company’s 2023 annual letter. “This threshold is important because it allows us to invest for the long term, building what we believe our users need 10 years from now, without regard for the natural volatility of capital markets.”

During the company’s annual user conference in April, John Collison said Stripe was initially founded to enable the acceptance of online payments but soon got requests for additional features, which he called “software-defined financial services.”

“That is what Stripe is building,” he said.

The post Report: Stripe Valued at $70 Billion Amid Possible Sequoia Deal appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

This move follows a power struggle between Getir Co-founder and CEO Nazim Salur and Getir’s Turkey head Batuhan Gultakan, as well as post-pandemic challenges faced by many popular delivery apps, Bloomberg reported Monday (June 24).

With the restructuring, Salur will be replaced by Gultakan, with Salur and his co-founders serving as board members and holding minority stakes in the grocery business, according to the report.

Salur and his co-founders will also take a controlling stake in a new entity that will be made up of Getir’s other businesses, including a ride hailing operation called BiTaksi, a jobs board, a shopping platform called N11 and a U.S. grocery business called FreshDirect, the report said. Mubadala will be a minority shareholder.

It was reported in April that Getir was grappling with the need to cut costs and restructure as demand for its services waned.

Investors were pushing for significant changes within the company, including asset sales and market exits.

After experiencing a surge in business during the pandemic as customers relied on its services while confined to their homes, Getir saw the demand for grocery delivery diminish as the world began to reopen.

At the time of that report, investors had poured over $2 billion into Getir.

In September 2023, Getir raised $500 million in a funding round at a valuation of $2.5 billion.

Eighteen months earlier, the company had been valued at $11.8 billion.

It was reported at the time that the decline in valuation reflected the downturn in venture capital markets due to rising interest rates and worsening economic conditions.

Getir acquired FreshDirect in November 2023, saying it aimed to grow in the United States.

The company said at the time that customers would continue to receive the same service they did before; that FreshDirect would leverage Getir’s technology and operational footprint to serve its customer base; and that Getir would gain FreshDirect’s product range to increase the quality and breadth of its own.

The post Getir to Split Into 2 Companies in Restructuring appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

When the operating landscape is uncertain and dynamic, businesses must prioritize controlling for what’s controllable.

And with the news Thursday (June 20) that Amazon Business, Amazon’s online business-to-business procurement store, has announced a number of new technology features designed to help large business customers simplify the way they shop for business supplies, unlocking operational leverage through tighter control over sourcing and procurement is top of mind for forward-thinking B2B firms.

“Amazon Business wants to change how companies shop for supplies through our unmatched selection, deep discounts, and smart capabilities,” said Shelley Salomon, worldwide vice president of Amazon Business, in a statement. “We don’t just react to the biggest challenges our customers have shared with us; we get ahead of them with new technologies so our customers can use their resources to navigate the unexpected and continue expanding their business.”

As the global economy becomes increasingly volatile, the need for more transparency, control and actionable insight into key payment processes, particularly procurement, is critical.

Ongoing economic instability can lead to liquidity issues, supply chain disruptions and increased financial risk. To mitigate these risks, B2B companies must prioritize robust procurement strategies and leverage digital technologies that fortify their procurement operations.

By moving away from legacy procurement programs mired in complexity and hung up on multi-step processes and embracing streamlined purchasing programs that reduce the amount of time leaders spend auditing purchases, firms can identify areas where savings can be made and implement cost-control measures without compromising on quality or operational efficiency.

Read more: Transforming Back-Office Functions Lets Firms Move Forward With Certainty

The Importance of Tightening Control Over B2B Processes

Supply chains are the backbone of B2B operations, and unexpected disruptions along the procurement journey can cause significant supply chain interruptions, from delayed shipments to even supplier bankruptcies. Tight control over procurement processes allows businesses to manage their supply chains more effectively, ensuring that they can adapt to changes swiftly. This involves maintaining a diversified supplier base, closely monitoring supplier performance and having contingency plans in place for potential disruptions.

“The single biggest challenge in B2B payments is that they are so fragmented across the company that being able to get a good healthy view of what my budget is, and where my actuals are, is the business problem most people are trying to solve. And once you finish that layer, then comes up the most important question, am I getting the ROI [return on investment] on my spend?” Karandeep Anand, chief product officer at Brex, told PYMNTS last summer.

Effective procurement strategies can help companies manage costs better by optimizing purchasing processes, negotiating better terms with suppliers and reducing waste. This requires a detailed understanding of spending patterns, identifying areas where savings can be made, and implementing cost-control measures without compromising on quality or operational efficiency.

“Many folks don’t want to buy from 30 or 40 different vendors. They want to be able to consolidate that with a few vendors, as few as possible … To differentiate ourselves, we have to make it truly seamless to buy, and to have a pricing structure that is completely transparent,” Dave Haase, president at ChemDirect, told PYMNTS in a conversation posted last November.

Read more: B2B Marketplaces Unlock New Opportunities for Commercial Procurement

What B2B Firms Expect From The Modern Procurement Experience

The solutions that Amazon Business is bringing to market provide clues around what B2B firms are seeking from procurement solutions.

For example, the Amazon Business App Center includes integrated shopping, accounting management, expense management, rewards and recognition, inventory management and business analytics, providing a single point of discovery as well as eliminating or reducing the need to develop a custom solution.

Separately, per the release, the platform’s Budget Management solution streamlines the process of setting and reviewing time-bound budgets across an organization, allowing business customers to set spend thresholds and make budget amounts visible to buyers to get ahead of overspending.

For larger orders of more than 1,000 items or more than $10,000 in total value, Integrated Quoting helps B2B firms generate custom quotes for bulk orders as well as other suppliers via third-party eSourcing and eProcurement platforms.

Amazon Business isn’t the only platform focused on streamlining procurement. Also this month, Airbase added spend analytics and vendor management capabilities to its spend orchestration software designed for mid-market and larger organizations; while Bamboo Rose has added supplier relationship management (SRM) capabilities to its retail management platform.

“We hear time and again from our customers that they can never be better than their worst performing suppliers,” Matt Stevens, CEO at Bamboo Rose, said in the release.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that businesses across the board have upped their investments in technologies to support their procurement processes. In addition, many businesses that have been slow to invest now plan to increase their spending on these solutions.

The post Amazon Doubles Down on Procurement With New Business-Buyer Solutions  appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Nuvei has obtained shareholder approval for its previously announced plan for a going private transaction with Advent International.

Shareholders approved the special resolution at a meeting held Tuesday (June 18), the Canadian FinTech company said in a Tuesday press release.

Shares that are not held by one of three rollover shareholders — Nuvei founder, chair and CEO Philip Fayer, certain investment funds managed by Novacap Management, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) — will be acquired for $34 in cash per share, according to the release.

Each of the rollover shareholders will sell all their shares to the purchaser in exchange for a combination of cash and shares in the capital of the purchaser or an affiliate, the release said.

Following the completion of this arrangement, Fayer, Novacap and CDPQ are expected to hold or control about 24%, 18% and 12%, respectively, of the common equity in the resulting private company, per the release.

Nuvei announced on April 1 that it was set to become a private company in a $6.3 billion deal with Advent International.

Fayer said at the time in a press release that the transaction “marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Nuvei.”

“Our strategic initiatives have always focused on accelerating our customers’ revenue, driving innovation across our technology, and developing our people,” Fayer said. “Bringing in a partner with such extensive experience in the payments sector will continue to support our development.”

Nuvei offered two things that would seemingly appeal to an acquirer: a broad-based exposure to some of the key shifts within payments and significant top-line momentum, PYMNTS reported April 2.

In the company’s earnings results released March 5, Nuvei reported that in the fourth quarter, global commerce revenue increased 12% year over year; B2B, government and independent software vendors revenue increased 19% year over year; and small- to medium-sized business-related revenues gained 2%.

As detailed in a May 14 proxy filing, Nuvei advised shareholders to vote for the go-private deal, saying the agreement is “in the best interests of the company … and represents an increase of approximately 42% from the consideration initially proposed by Advent.”

The post Nuvei Shareholders Approve Previously Announced Go-Private Deal appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

John Collison, a co-founder of Stripe, said the company did that last year, did it again this year and will probably do it again “in the future,” Bloomberg reported Monday (June 17).

Speaking with David Rubenstein for an upcoming episode of Bloomberg Television’s “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations,” Collison also said that Stripe is in no hurry to launch an initial public offering (IPO), according to the report.

While analysts have closely watched Stripe and other FinTech veterans, waiting to see when and how they may go public, Collison said many companies go public too early and that Stripe remains focused on products and opportunities to grow the business, per the report.

Stripe was valued at $65 billion in February after a share sale deal with employees.

That deal saw the company and some of its investors purchase more than $1 billion in stock from current and former employees,

When announcing the deal, Stripe said that using its own capital to purchase the shares would offset dilution from the company’s employee equity compensation programs.

“We’re pleased to once again offer employees an opportunity for liquidity,” Stripe Chief Financial Officer Steffan Tomlinson said at the time. “Our business continues to see strong momentum with the most advanced companies in the world.”

In March, Stripe reported that it surpassed $1 trillion in total payment volume in 2023, a figure that was up 25% from the previous year and meant that businesses running on Stripe accounted for about 1% of global gross domestic product (GDP).

“Stripe was robustly cash flow positive in 2023 and expects to be again in 2024,” Collison and Co-founder Patrick Collison wrote in the company’s 2023 annual letter released March 13. “This threshold is important, because it allows us to invest for the long term, building what we believe our users need 10 years from now, without regard for the natural volatility of capital markets.”

During the company’s annual user conference held in April, John Collison said that Stripe was founded in 2009 to enable the acceptance of online payments but soon got requests for additional features, which he dubbed “software-defined financial services.”

“That is what Stripe is building,” Collision said.

The post Stripe to Let Employees Cash Out Shares for Third Time appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The Gatsby scribe had never met a tech CEO. The business landscape is populated with stories of reinvention, and in some cases, with business leaders who — for lack of a better phrase — “keep on truckin’” and leave failed, or failing, companies behind while boldly moving onto something else.

News came Thursday (June 13), through a variety of media outlets including CNBC, that Foundation Robotics Labs is in the process of raising funds for a reported $11 million seed round. And it’s worth noting that the robotics startup counts as a co-founder none other than Synapse’s former CEO Sankaet Pathak. The startup’s seemingly all of two months old, and we note that there already seems to be some controversy around the funding activities.

Controversies Over Funding and Commitments

CNBC reports that as it seeks to raise the last $1 million of the $11 million funding, Foundation Robotics has claimed (to would-be investors) that it would be on the receiving end of an investment from General Motors. The auto giant was also reportedly in the midst of a data collection pact with the robotics firm and had supposedly committed a $300 million order… all of which has now been publicly denied by GM.

“GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so,” a GM spokesman told CNBC. “In fact, GM has never had an agreement of any kind with the company. Any claims to the contrary are fabricated.”

Pathak is of course the same executive who this week weighed in at a creditor hearing that Synapse may have commingled funds — end user funds, FinTech partner funds and Synapse’s own operating monies — in accounts held with Evolve. As we reported this week, it can be tough to sort out the commingled holdings to determine who owns what … and by extension, how, when and whether an $85 million shortfall in end users’ holdings will be recovered and restored to their rightful owners.

It remains to be seen what happens with either firm — Synapse, which may impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of FinTech customers, or Foundation Robotics. As the latter firm launched this year — well after Synapse began laying off staff late last year after losing one of its largest clients, Mercury — the read across is that Pathak is looking toward what’s next.

And there’s an echo here. Just last month, as noted in this space, WeWork has been moving through bankruptcy and its co-founder Adam Neumann, previously ousted from the firm, has given up an attempt to buy the firm for about $650 million (after it had been valued in its heyday for tens of billions of dollars). Three years after leaving WeWork, Neumann launched Flow in 2022, a real estate venture focused on residential living, and complete with digital wallets.

CEO and co-founders often are likened to visionaries — known for taking risks where others may not dare to tread. Reinvention is part of the lore. For Synapse, and for Pathak, the next chapter looms.

The post Is Former Synapse CEO Already Moving on With a Robotics Startup? appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Search engine optimization (SEO) firm Yext is reportedly considering a sale.

The company has hired investment bankers after attracting takeover interest, Reuters reported Friday (June 7), citing unnamed sources.

It is only in the early stages of exploring a sale and it may choose not to proceed with any deal, according to the report.

Reached by PYMNTS, Yext declined to comment on the report.

The firm’s shares have lost more than half their value over the last 12 months amid a decline in revenue, intense competition and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), the report said.

Yext will release its latest quarterly results Monday (June 10), according to a May 29 press release.

In May, the company introduced a solution called Listings Recommendations that uses AI to provide actionable insights and advance to help brands enhance their search strategies.

The solution provides proactive recommendations, insights supported by data science and listings monitoring that identifies underperforming business listings and suggests ways to improve them.

“With the ability to give customers deep insights and take action much faster, it’s a new day in the listings space,” Jason LaFollette, chief technology officer at Yext, said in a May 13 press release announcing this new offering.

In March, Yext expanded its service and support portfolio to include a new customer success program featuring a team of digital marketing experts who use AI to identify insights and solutions to help customers capitalize on opportunities.

Business leaders are rethinking their digital strategies after Google’s latest unveiling of AI-powered search tools sent ripples through the business world, PYMNTS reported in May.

Companies are struggling to understand and adapt to the tech giant’s new features that promise to disrupt online information retrieval.

Another player in the SEO space, Constructor, unveiled a solution in July designed to optimize product discovery and search relevance on its platform for enterprise eCommerce companies.

The company’s Attribute Enrichment combines raw product catalog data with buyer’s behavioral data to correct and auto-enrich product attributes.

Among the benefits of this solution are more accurate product descriptions that increase their SEO rankings.

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