JP Morgan-backed Global PayEX reported 600 per cent growth in digital invoice presentment and payments on its platform, FreePay, in 2021. The 6X growth signals the rapid adoption of AI-powered cloud solutions by Indian conglomerates to digitise and automate Accounts Receivable (AR).
Over 1.2 million invoices amounting to around $1.5 billion were presented, paid, and reconciled on FreePay. Almost 95 per cent of invoices were paid through electronic push-and-pull payment mechanisms, such as NEFT, RTGS, and ACH.
In addition to enabling digital payments, the cloud solution lowers the cost of transactions, brings real-time visibility to the pending invoices, and reconciles payments directly into the ERP software – achieving over 95 per cent straight-through processing (STP) or straight-through reconciliation (STR).
Several Fortune 500 companies across electrical goods, automobile, logistics, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals are increasingly using FreePay for end-to-end invoice management. Automobile companies, for instance, saw 7X growth in invoices presented, paid, and reconciled on FreePay with the value of paid invoices amounting to nearly $250 million. Similarly, businesses in electrical goods recorded a 4X growth in adoption of FreePay with invoices amounting to $450 million being paid through the cloud platform.
Global PayEX, Chief Revenue Officer, Narayan ‘Naru’ Ramamoorthy said, “We are witnessing a surge in demand from mid-to-large corporates, and their customers and vendors for Artificial Intelligence, Cloud-based, and Machine Learning solutions to transform Accounts Receivable and Payable processes. The pandemic has definitely fuelled the B2B digitisation opportunity globally and in India, as businesses actively seek solutions that keep costs in check, enable ‘work from anywhere’ and streamline the otherwise slow, manual and complex processes. FreePay has helped our clients unlock millions of dollars in working capital and pursue new growth avenues.”
FreePay has improved the Daily Sales Outstanding, a measure of outstanding receivables, by an average of 20 per cent. Large corporates have noted a decrease between five to 17 days in DSO, thereby speeding up revenue realisations and freeing up working capital.
More than 50 corporates and 17,000 SME dealers and distributors on FreePay have moved away from paper-based payments, such as cheques and physical invoices, to adopt the cloud-based mobile and web dashboard to view invoices, use credit/debit notes, automate deduction workflows, and make digital payments.
