Mastercard Launches Platform to Help Small Businesses Consolidate Digital Tools to Boost Your Operations

Mastercard announced Biz360, a complete digital solution designed to provide providers with a simple approach to help their small business customers manage the most important aspects of running and growing a business. Mastercard Biz360™ offers new capabilities to enhance business processes and integrate existing digital tools into a user-friendly platform.

Mastercard has launched a new platform to assist financial institutions and service providers in providing their small business customers with a method to combine the digital tools they use to run and grow their enterprises.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday (November 12), the Mastercard Biz360 platform serves as a “one-stop shop” for business owners to access new features while also integrating their existing digital tools.

“Mastercard Biz360 is the time-saving solution that small businesses need to focus on what matters most — running their businesses and serving their communities,” Jane Prokop, executive vice president and global head of small and medium enterprises at Mastercard, said in a statement.

Small businesses cannot afford to ignore digitization. According to Mastercard research, 75% of small businesses use digital tools in their everyday operations, with two-thirds seeing a seamless digital experience as vital to their success. However, the experience is far from frictionless, with 25% of small business owners having to use more than six different platforms on a daily basis, draining two of their most valuable resources: time and money.

According to the release, Biz360 allows financial and service providers to provide their small business customers with a single destination that includes operational tools, subscriptions, and payment gateways; administrative task automation; personalized business performance reports; and customer engagement tools for creating customized email and marketing campaigns, as well as websites.

According to the announcement, the integration needs very little effort from both the providers and their small business customers.

According to the statement, Mastercard has teamed with small business FinTech platform Hello Alice and technology platform vcita to provide this option to small enterprises.

According to the statement, the company plans to expand Biz360 to more markets by 2025 in conjunction with additional providers.

In a previous, separate effort to assist small businesses, Mastercard collaborated with Bluevine on the June launch of a small business credit card that offers 1.5% cash back on all business purchases, merchant discounts, and a range of business tools.

The card is intended to serve as an alternative to business credit cards and corporate expenditure cards built for large companies, as well as personal cards, which can make it difficult for small business owners to monitor expenses and estimate their finances.

Biz360 enables financial and service providers to provide their small business customers with various initial benefits and capabilities, such as:

• A more simplified digital experience: Rather than depending on disparate technology, small businesses may integrate their existing operational tools, subscriptions, and payment methods into a single destination, as well as access value-added services that boost productivity.
• Increased efficiency: By automating administrative tasks and integrating business management tools on a single platform, entrepreneurs can concentrate on strategic, revenue-generating activities that drive growth.
• Enhanced customer engagement: This solution includes a client portal that allows small business owners to manage and build customer relationships, increase loyalty through targeted email and marketing campaigns, and improve their digital presence with website creation options.
• Data-driven insights: Biz360 offers personalized business performance reports, allowing business owners to gain useful insights that can help them make more informed decision-making.
• Light-lift implementation: The integration requires minimal effort from both providers and their small business customers, allowing providers to launch quickly with a platform that seamlessly integrates existing tools based on the business owner’s preferences and meets modern business expectations.

Bringing digital solutions to small businesses through the power of partnership

Hello Alice, a small business fintech platform, will engage with Mastercard on the initial rollout of Mastercard Biz360 to select small businesses across their U.S. network.

“We’re committed to empowering Main Street by equipping American small business owners with the tools they need to succeed in today’s fast-paced, digitally-driven economy,” said Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president at Hello Alice. “As an extension of our longstanding collaboration with Mastercard, we are proud to be among the first to bring Mastercard Biz360 to select small businesses across our community in the U.S. and play our part in helping these entrepreneurs succeed.”

Mastercard is cooperating with vcita, a leading technology platform targeted for businesses serving the small business market. This unique solution for small business owners boosts customer engagement, payment collection, and time management.

“We are honored to work with Mastercard, who is just as committed to the success of small businesses as we are,” stated Itzik Levy, CEO and creator of vcita. “Our collaboration with Mastercard facilitates the digitization of operations, helping small businesses maximize growth and customer satisfaction.”

Mastercard intends to expand Biz360’s reach into new markets by 2025, as well as improve the platform’s capabilities to meet the changing needs of small businesses.

A track record of introducing small businesses to the digital economy

Biz360 is the latest addition to Mastercard’s growing suite of product innovations that go beyond banking and are intended to help businesses at every step of their development. The digital solution follows Mastercard’s success in bringing more than 50 million micro, small, and medium-sized businesses into the digital economy, as part of a pledge made in 2020 to promote a more inclusive world in which every business thrives. As part of its continued goal to power economies and empower people, Mastercard will continue to digitally enable businesses everywhere through innovative technologies, partnerships, and philanthropic efforts.

Mastercard announced in December 2023 that its Strive fund has awarded approximately $2 million in grants to organizations that promote small businesses.

The Strive Innovation Fund will fund 11 organizations around the world, including those focusing on “innovative digital solutions that support small businesses’ growth in environmental sustainability and data for market access,” according to the company.