Matan Bar is the co-founder and CEO of B2B payments platform Melio. He predicts the complete digitization of paper check transactions in business payments.
Opinion
Matan Bar: Bill.com targets finance pros; Melio targets owner-operators
“As these tools, Bill.com, Avid Exchange, all these wonderful accounts payable automation solutions are mostly built for finance professionals, like an accountant, a bookkeeper, a finance team, and Melio is targeting these owner operators, these small businesse…”
Assertion Partly supported
Bar: Federal Reserve research shows $18T in US B2B payments remain on paper checks
“Hasn't happened yet in terms of how a business pays another business or how B to B payments are being done, and I remember this one number that I shared with Michael that I read the Federal Reserve research that indicated that there are around 18 trillion doll…”
Insight
Bar: Ubiquity drives winner-takes-all dynamics in payment networks
“And ubiquity wins. Like Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, Square Cash, all these payment networks, they became ubiquitous around the US, As more and more people started using them, and that's how its winner takes all, or winner takes most, I guess, with these types of pay…”
Insight
Bar: B2B payment platforms cannot rely on forced recipient sign-ups
“With B to B payments, and with Melio, it was interesting because we could not force a closed network. So, when a restaurant owner is paying its, I don't know, 15 suppliers, electricity company, the fish supplier, we need to make sure that the restaurant owner …”
Opinion
Bar: Setting strict 50-50 gender quotas is wrong approach for diversity
“So we didn't aspire to get to fifty-fifty. I don't think that's the right way to do that.”
Disclosure
Melio turned down higher valuations on every funding round
“We turned down higher valuations than the ones we took from our current investors on every round, really. Like, on our A, we had a higher valuation from another VC. On our B, on our C, this last round as well, we always received higher valuations, but we picke…”