Conferma has joined Modulr in a strategic partnership aimed at modernising and overall optimising travel and hotel payments.
Through this integration, Modulr positions itself as a fully connected issuer within the Conferma platform, providing travel management companies (TMCs), online travel agencies (OTAs), and corporate travel programmes with an API-enabled option to issue and handle virtual cards across the travel ecosystem.
Bringing optimal payments to travel businesses
By teaming up, Modulr and Conferma intend to merge their capabilities, with the former offering secure, real-time virtual payment features to travel businesses, including instant hotel payments that improve reconciliation, minimise operational costs, and augment the traveller experience. The move enables travel bookings to be funded, issued, and paid efficiently, without the need to pre-fund over weekends or hold excess balances.
Additionally, the two companies aim to address the challenges that travel businesses face, including pre-funding cards, conducting weekend balances, and reconciling supplier payments manually for travel payments. The Conferma and Modulr partnership brings together virtual card flexibility with direct issuer connectivity. Companies are set to be able to issue Modulr Visa and Mastercard virtual cards instantly from within Conferma’s platform, as well as through its connected ecosystem of GDs (Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport), content aggregators (DerbySoft), and workflow automation platforms (Groundspan).
Modulr’s real-time virtual card payments infrastructure currently supports travel spend across hotels, airfares, and other in-programme categories. This can be done within Conferma’s network, with the merged solution facilitating:
- Improved spend controls and cash flow visibility;
- Minimised operational complexity for finance and ops teams;
- A simplified experience for both travellers and suppliers;
- Real-time reconciliation and centralised reporting.
The collaboration promises to provide the travel sector with:
- For TMCs, the two companies will benefit from an API-enabled issuer that integrates into existing workflows with no disruption;
- When it comes to corporates, the partnership is set to bring more choice in virtual card issuing, assisting cost control and compliance;
- For suppliers, including hotels, offering them more efficient payment settlement and minimising reconciliation effort;
- For the industry as a whole, the two companies will provide issuer diversity that facilitates development and modern travel operations.
