Zoho forays into payments biz, announces B2B Bill Payments powered by NBBL

MUMBAI: Zoho, a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, on Thursday announced its strategic entry into the payments sector with the launch of Zoho Payments, a unified payment solution to help businesses accept money online from their customers.

It also introduced B2B payments capabilities that streamline invoice presentment and payments. The B2B payments capabilities offered by Zoho Payments are powered by Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) of NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL).

This announcement was made along the sidelines of Global Fintech Fest.

“At Zoho, we strongly believe that business finance, banking, and payments should work together,” said Sivaramakrishnan Iswaran, global head of finance and operations BU, Zoho.

“Towards this vision, we had launched our ‘Connected Banking’ solution across our finance apps, integrating with leading banks. With the launch of Zoho Payments today, along with B2B payment capabilities, we are able to achieve our goal. NBBL's BBPS standardises invoice presentment and payments, providing multiple payment modes, instant payment confirmations, invoice financing, and a unified platform for invoice transmission and reconciliation. This marks a major advancement in the fintech domain. As a result, we can now offer a more holistic financial management solution for businesses."

According to the Ministry of Finance, digital payment transactions volume reached a staggering Rs 11,660 crore in 2023 from Rs 3,134 crore in 2018-19. This significant growth can be largely attributed to the widespread adoption of alternate payment rails like UPI. Businesses can fully leverage such innovative payment solutions when these solutions fit into their pre-existing daily workflows and are an integral part of their finance systems.

Zoho enables this with the launch of a comprehensive payment gateway that helps businesses easily accept payments online, and its B2B payments solution through NBBL's BBPS.

A Unified Payment Solution

Zoho Payments is a PCI-DSS level 1 compliant payment solution that enables businesses to securely accept payments through UPI, 35+ Net Banking options, and cards. Zoho's payment solution provides a smooth checkout experience to the end customers, drastically reducing the cart abandonment rate and therefore curbing revenue leakage. It offers fraud management, detailed insights on transactions, refunds, payment failures, and allows businesses to handle disputes easily, saving them time and resources.

Moreover, Zoho Payments is tightly integrated with the applications from the finance and operations suite, like Zoho Books, Zoho Billing, and Zoho Invoice.

Since Zoho Payments is tightly integrated with Zoho Books, businesses using the accounting software can exchange invoices and transactions with their buyers and sellers effortlessly through the BBPS network. Invoices sent through Zoho Books on the BBPS platform will automatically be recorded in the buyer's ERP or accounting app. Similarly, bills sent by their seller will be recorded automatically in Zoho Books. Businesses can also obtain financing for their unpaid invoices from lenders on the TReDS platform through the BBPS network.

Zoho is one of the early adopters of B2B payments powered by NBBL's BBPS, a revolutionary technology that reshapes payments and collections across India. With the experts predicting the market value of the domestic B2B payments sector to reach $11 trillion by 2026, businesses can expect more of such significant innovations.