Crezco, a UK fintech company using open banking to make B2B invoice and bill payments as convenient as B2C card payments, has achieved several major business milestones through securing funding and integrating its technology into global small business platform Xero.
Crezco has secured $12m in Series A funding from MMC Ventures and fintech-focused 13books capital to enable further growth. Additionally, its recent agreement with Xero has resulted in the technology partnership being integrated into its bill payment feature which will be launched to UK small businesses at the end of the month.
Underpinned by Crezco’s account-to-account payments API, Xero will be the first major small business cloud accounting software in the UK to offer on-platform bill payments using open banking.
The solution will allow small businesses to simply and securely manage, approve and pay their bills without leaving Xero’s platform. To achieve this, Crezco uses open banking, a relatively new technology leveraging account-to-account (A2A) payments.
In their new report, Xero has found that 50 per cent of UK small businesses are worried about their financial future amidst economic uncertainties. By leveraging Crezco’s technology and API, Xero’s new bill payments feature can help small businesses have a more accurate view of their cash flow.
Recently a multitude of open banking companies have sprung up, focusing on different market segments and the ability to bypass traditional payment providers’ fees.
Crezco differentiates themselves by targeting B2B platforms highlighting the improved user experience. It is not about replacing card payment with something cheaper but replacing manual bank transfers with something more convenient.
Ralph Rogge, Founder and CEO at Crezco, said, “A2A payments allows Crezco’s partners to move the point of payment from the bank to their platform. This is not just a domestic transfer solution. We connect real-time payments everywhere and it's one of the most obvious examples of embedded payments.”
While there are many payment successes in B2C e-commerce and B2C point-of-sale, B2B payments remains a larger and less addressed market. The total addressable market increases daily, with small businesses continuously moving away from the use of paper invoices, desktop spreadsheets, cash and cheques, and towards digital, cloud-based solutions.
The potential growth opportunities have been recognised by Crezco’s new investors. “The agreement between Xero and Crezco is a great opportunity for open banking to address SME payments in the UK and, over time, internationally”, said Oliver Richards, Partner at MMC, whose fintech investments include YuLife, Copper and TreasurySpring. “It’s a transformational moment for the company and we’re excited to be backing Ralph and the team at this critical point in their growth.”
Michael McFadgen, Partner and Co-Founder at 13books Capital, said: “While there are many exciting opportunities in the arena, it was Crezco’s continued focus on the SME and their payment challenges, domestic and international, that led to our investment.”
Eligible UK Xero customers can register for the bill payments beta now, with the new feature being made available on 27 November 2023.