Extend Partners with Visa to Offer Virtual Card Solutions for the Middle Market
Extend, a pioneering virtual card and spend management platform, has officially announced a referral agreement with Visa, a global leader in digital payments. This collaboration marks a significant step in the evolution of business-to-business (B2B) payment solutions, particularly for emerging middle-market companies that require greater control over their financial transactions. By leveraging the power of virtual cards, businesses can enhance security, mitigate fraud risks, and optimize financial operations, all while maintaining their existing banking relationships and credit lines.
Empowering Middle-Market Companies with Smarter Payment Solutions
The financial landscape is evolving rapidly, with businesses increasingly demanding smarter and more efficient payment solutions. Emerging middle-market companies—often defined as businesses with annual revenues between $10 million and $1 billion—face unique challenges in managing their finances. Unlike large enterprises, which have extensive resources and dedicated financial teams, or small businesses that often operate with more simplified payment structures, middle-market firms must strike a balance between scalability and efficiency.
Traditional corporate payment methods, such as checks and ACH transfers, come with limitations that can hinder operational efficiency. Checks, for instance, are prone to fraud and can take days or even weeks to clear, while ACH transactions may not always offer the necessary level of control over individual expenditures. This is where virtual cards, like those offered by Extend, play a transformative role.
By enabling middle-market businesses to issue unique virtual cards for different expenses—whether for subscriptions, vendor payments, or employee travel—Extend provides an added layer of security and flexibility. Each virtual card can be tailored with specific spending limits, expiration dates, and usage controls, allowing finance teams to maintain tighter oversight while reducing the risk of fraud.
The Growth of Virtual Card Adoption
The demand for virtual card solutions has been steadily rising, driven by the need for increased security, efficiency, and financial control. According to industry research, global virtual card spending is projected to skyrocket from $3.1 trillion in 2023 to nearly $14 trillion by 2028. This exponential growth underscores a fundamental shift in how businesses manage payments, particularly in the B2B space.
Virtual cards offer several key advantages over traditional payment methods, including:
- Enhanced Security: Each virtual card is uniquely generated, reducing the risk of fraud and unauthorized transactions.
- Better Expense Management: Businesses can assign virtual cards to specific departments, projects, or employees, ensuring better tracking and accountability.
- Faster Reconciliation: With automated expense categorization and real-time tracking, finance teams can close their books faster and with greater accuracy.
- Optimized Cash Flow: Virtual cards provide businesses with more control over payment timing, enabling better working capital management.
A Strong Partnership for Future Growth
Extend CEO Andrew Jamison emphasized the significance of this new agreement, stating, “Our ongoing relationship with Visa is a key pillar in our effort to deliver powerful payment technology without asking customers to give up the business card they prefer or the bank they trust. With this referral agreement, we look forward to supporting more Visa-issuing banks and their emerging middle-market clients.”
This partnership will allow Extend to further expand its reach, bringing its innovative virtual card solutions to a broader audience. By integrating seamlessly with Visa’s extensive network of financial institutions, Extend can empower banks to offer their business clients more robust and sophisticated payment tools. This, in turn, helps banks win new business, boost revenue streams, and strengthen customer loyalty.
For Visa, the partnership aligns with its mission to drive innovation in the digital payments ecosystem. Leigh Radtke, Vice President and Head of North America Product for Visa Commercial Solutions, highlighted the importance of modernizing B2B payment experiences: “B2B payment experiences should mirror those we enjoy as consumers and provide businesses the controls and features essential for improving their operational effectiveness. Extend delivers this consumer-like experience in a way that resonates with the emerging middle-market segment in particular.”
How Extend’s Platform Benefits Businesses
Extend’s intuitive web and mobile app provides businesses with an array of powerful tools designed to streamline expense management and enhance financial oversight. Key features of the platform include:
- Vendor Payments with Virtual Cards: Businesses can issue unique virtual cards to pay vendors, reducing reliance on traditional payment methods and improving security.
- Employee Expense Management: Companies can allocate virtual cards to employees, ensuring spending accountability and reducing the need for cumbersome reimbursement processes.
- Subscription Payment Automation: Businesses can use virtual cards to manage recurring subscription payments, simplifying financial tracking and preventing unwanted auto-renewals.
- Bill-Back Reconciliation for Client Expenses: Firms that bill clients for incurred expenses can automate the reconciliation process, improving accuracy and efficiency.
- Tail Spend Tracking: Companies can monitor smaller, less frequent purchases that often go unnoticed, enabling better budgeting and cost control.
The Future of B2B Payments
The partnership between Extend and Visa highlights the growing importance of digital-first financial solutions in today’s business environment. As more companies seek to modernize their payment infrastructure, virtual cards are poised to become a cornerstone of B2B transactions.
Looking ahead, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are expected to further enhance virtual card capabilities. AI-driven analytics can provide businesses with deeper insights into spending patterns, helping them optimize budgets and detect anomalies in real time. Additionally, integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems will enable seamless financial workflows, reducing manual processes and increasing efficiency.
With Extend’s innovative platform and Visa’s global reach, middle-market companies can look forward to a future where financial management is not only more secure but also more streamlined and intelligent. As virtual card adoption continues to rise, businesses that embrace these solutions will be better positioned to navigate the complexities of modern commerce.
The referral agreement between Extend and Visa marks a significant milestone in the evolution of digital payments. By empowering middle-market businesses with cutting-edge virtual card solutions, the partnership is set to drive efficiency, security, and control in B2B transactions. As the demand for smarter payment solutions grows, Extend’s technology—combined with Visa’s extensive network—will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of financial management for businesses worldwide.
With virtual card spending projected to reach unprecedented levels in the coming years, companies that adopt these solutions now will gain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital economy. By leveraging the power of Extend’s platform and Visa’s payment expertise, middle-market businesses can optimize their financial operations and unlock new growth opportunities in the ever-evolving world of B2B payments.
