When it comes to small businesses, the appetite for smart digital tools continues to grow and create opportunities for organizations that serve this fast-changing segment.
Many companies have invested in innovative solutions for small and local businesses, but few have shown the same consistent efforts and commitment as Mastercard. As a global technology company in the financial services industry, Mastercard’s mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, from large corporations to your local corner shop.
As a company that’s dedicated to empowering SMBs through technology, we share this vision and have had the pleasure of working with Mastercard on several projects, from helping SMBs navigate their business through challenging times to participating in StartPath, a program designed to drive solutions that create simple, secure digital experiences for SMBs globally.
Following these successful collaborations, we are taking the next step in our joint journey: Mastercard has recently announced that InTandem by vcita has been selected to power Biz360, a solution for small business owners that improves customer engagement, payment collection, and time management. Biz360 marks a new chapter in Mastercard’s SMB mission and stands out as a strategic move to establish the company’s position as an innovative leader in the underserved SMB market.
To get an insider’s perspective on the announcement of Biz360, we sat down with Itzik Levy, CEO & Founder at vcita, to get a full insider’s perspective.
Why do you think vcita was selected to power Mastercard’s Biz360?
The truth is that Mastercard conducted thorough and deep research in search of a partner for this strategic initiative. When we learned that our technology was selected to sit at the heart of Biz360, we were honored and excited, but not completely surprised. The team at vcita has worked long and hard on building a product that is comprehensive and truly one of a kind. These are several ways our technology stands out:
Our SMB solution is unique in the sense that it offers small business owners from any vertical all the tools they need under one roof. Unlike other solutions, we cater to a wide range of businesses and are able to offer verticalized experiences within the solution to help different business types utilize it the way that works best for them. This flexibility serves our partners well since many SMB-facing organizations like Mastercard are interested in taking a cross-vertical proposition to market, rather than launching dedicated solutions for each SMB vertical.
Another way we stand out is that our solution is comprehensive and designed to support many use cases on one hand, but remains lightweight and easy to use on the other. This is particularly important for small businesses who ofen don’t have the time to invest in setting up complicated and cumbersome solutions.
Finally, our platform has already proven itself as partner-ready and is already being leveraged by other world-class organizations that bring their own SMB propositions to market, based on our technology.
What does it truly mean to be “partner-ready”?
When I say we are partner-ready, what I mean is that besides our SMB solution, we offer a full suite of partner products and services that enable our partners to fully customize our platform, both in terms of product scope as well as Go-To-Market.
Our platform is extendable in the sense that other applications can be embedded into the solution seamlessly, offering a consistent user experience. Our partners often use our platform as a hub, where they serve many different applications and services, in addition to our built-in business management modules.
Besides the ability to build on our platform, our partners can maintain a high degree of flexibility when it comes to defining their commercial framework. This means that our partners are free to build their packaging strategy and create designated upsell and cross-sell paths within the product.
Beyond the technology and commercial framework, I am extremely proud of the people who make our partnerships successful. Our teams are highly experienced in working hand-in-hand with partners from the early stages of product definition, through launching to the market, and continuing with ongoing joint work to achieve our partners’ goals.
For us, “Partnership” isn’t just a word we use instead of “customer”. The organizations that choose to work with us enjoy our long-term commitment to their success, beyond our technology.
What’s next for the vcita-Mastercard partnership?
Small business fintech platform Hello Alice is already collaborating with Mastercard on the initial rollout of Mastercard Biz360 to small businesses across their U.S. network. Several leading organizations are lined up to bring Biz360 to their SMB customer base in H1 2025, and we continue to work with Mastercard on extending the proposition and adding more capabilities for the benefit of SMBs and the organizations that serve them.
How do organizations benefit from expanding their SMB proposition with the InTandem technology?
Organizations that serve the SMB community are in a unique position to introduce their SMBs to new technology, contribute to the digital transformation of SMBs, and meet the growing need for tools that enhance productivity and improve financial health.
By bringing business management capabilities to their SMB audience, organizations can provide great value to their customers, increase satisfaction, and improve customer lifetime value.
When using business management features to manage their daily business operations, SMBs will visit the solution many times throughout their workday and leverage it to carry out their business-critical tasks. This positions the solutions as an integral component of SMBs’ workdays and contributes to “product stickiness,” which helps these organizations combat customer churn.
Organizations can also create more upsell opportunities by integrating their solutions and services into our business management solution, and presenting SMBs with promotions and special offers within the platform. These offers can be presented with contextual relevance, ensuring the right offer is presented to the right user at the best time.
So overall, our technology helps organizations increase their customer loyalty and create more upsell opportunities within their existing SMB customer base. This unique proposition can help organizations stand out in a competitive market and attract new business.
What does success look like?
Companies that have leveraged our technology to bring their propositions to the SMB market have enjoyed an uplift in daily active users (+62%) and an overall increase in user engagement (+24%). The increase in engagement and satisfaction helps partners shrink their client churn (-10%) and establish deep-rooted customer relationships that last. When it comes to maximizing revenue potential, our partners have seen growth in their average revenue per user (+26%).
Looking at how the solution benefits SMB users, we see that they enjoy a significant uplift in their own customer retention. They are also able to reduce the time they spend on administrative tasks and save an hour of admin work every single day! When it comes to improving financial health, SMBs using the solution report that they are able to get paid faster thanks to the online billing and automation features, helping them manage cash flow and build toward growth.
How will your technology evolve in 2025?
Our roadmap for 2025 is truly bursting at the seams, as we continue to grow our platform to benefit our partners and SMB users.
One area that I am particularly excited about is the further development of our AI capabilities. AI already plays a significant role in our solution and offers SMB users insights and actionable advice throughout their workday. Although I am proud of what we have done so far, I believe that it’s truly just the beginning. As we see it, AI has the power to unlock many opportunities for SMBs. Whether it’s providing strategic advice, creating marketing content, or automating time-consuming tasks, AI has the power to help SMBs overcome their most daunting challenges and take their business to new heights.
In 2025, we will continue to embed AI experiences into user journeys and provide SMBs with advice and assistance where they need it most. Our North Star is taking AI beyond the buzzwords and building something that delivers real, concrete value to SMBs.
We plan to do this by keeping AI actionable and accessible within the tools SMBs are already using to manage their day-to-day. Most importantly, we make sure that the advice delivered by AI is business-specific and non-generic. We can live up to this promise thanks to the vast data aggregated on our platform. With over 120K SMBs using our solution, we can help SMBs benchmark themselves and learn from the experience of their peers.
Our research indicates that more than 70% of SMBs haven’t even begun to explore the value AI can bring to their business. Our mission is to grow that number significantly by making this promising technology more accessible and valuable to SMBs, the segment that needs it the most.
If you’d like to learn more about InTandem, vcita’s partner proposition for organizations serving the SMB market, please get in touch.
