Mastercard partners with AI start-up to simplify freight payments
Mastercard is to partner with Stargo, a company leveraging artificial intelligence in the freight industry to deliver routing, pricing and payment automation for freight forwarders.
By integrating trusted Mastercard commercial payment solutions with Stargo’s price optimisation engine, players in the freight industry will be able to benefit from a more efficient procure-to-pay process that delivers end-to-end transparency and reconciliation.
According to Drewry Supply Chain Advisors, the cost of today’s process inefficiencies represent $34.4bn annually for the global container shipping industry.
This is largely due to low levels of automation for booking, invoicing and reconciliation and the predominance of cash, bank transfer and checks for payment. In addition, freight forwarders often have to extend credit to their customers in order to facilitate shipments.
By combining Stargo’s route and price optimisation platform with Mastercard technology, reach and experience in facilitating global business payments, freight forwarders will be able to offer their customers a fully automated service from quote request to payment settlement.
Companies within the global freight ecosystem who leverage this integrated solution will benefit from faster and guaranteed payment – avoiding errors and saving money.
“Mastercard is committed to helping businesses pay and get paid in more efficient ways”, comments Chris Fendley, senior vice president for enterprise partnerships at Mastercard.
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“Following successful implementations in the travel and insurance sectors, we look forward to partnering with Stargo to bring the security and convenience of our digital payment solutions to the global freight industry.”
Joel Sellam, founder and chief executive at Stargo, commented: “Stargo uses AI and optimisation algorithms to compare fast-changing prices from tens of thousands of data points in real-time.
“By working with Mastercard, we can offer our customers a fully integrated, global booking and payment experience that allows them to operate at much higher speed, with peace of mind.”
Stargo recently integrated its service with BluJay Solutions, a leading supply chain software and services provider for the global freight industry. A pilot involving the three companies is planned to launch later this year.
Douglas Braun, chief executive officer at BluJay Solutions, comments: “BluJay strives to provide the technology and tools our customers need to manage the complexity and growth within the global supply chain.
“In view of that, BluJay is honoured to work with Stargo and Mastercard on this leading-edge industry partnership that has the potential to deliver significant value including more efficient payment processing for our customers.”
