ABOUT THE COMPANY
Founded in 2020, KEO World (KEO) is an innovative FinTech helping Buyers and Suppliers accelerate business growth through all-digital inventory financing and B2B payment solutions. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, KEO operates in the U.S., Mexico and across LATAM by way of its Global Trade program.
KEO was the first Non-Bank Financial Institution to be granted an issuing license by American Express.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Business growth is constrained due to limited access to short-term working capital and poor B2B payment systems. Up until now, businesses have only been able to obtain a loan, credit card or use factoring. All of which include high interest rates, a heavy paper trail and payments based on a monthly 30-day calendar cycle.
KEO’s focus is on the B2B sector, helping SMEs across the Americas with limited access to traditional credit or SMEs that are currently utilizing more expensive options to acquire inventories (such as invoice factoring).
In LATAM, the B2B market is estimated to be USD 2 trillion and there are over 4M new SMEs with limited access to credit post covid-19. In Mexico alone, over 55% of the $280b B2B transactions are still conducted in cash. In the USA, the market is more mature but there are still over 30M SMEs, and of these an estimated 80% would like to have alternative supply/inventory financing sources.
With that, KEO developed Workeo, a B2B BNPL solution designed to bring the ease of the B2C buyer experience to B2B – offering a seamless, all-digital working capital solution that enables SMEs to purchase key recurring inventory essential to the growth of their business. Through Workeo, SMEs are issued a virtual Workeo card and credit line, after a seamless digital approval process. Suppliers that want to offer KEO’s B2B BNPL inventory finance program to their customers can do so instantly, without the need for any systems integration.
Benefits of the Workeo Solution for SMEs (buyer):
- A working capital revolving line of credit to finance key supplies and extend existing terms
- 100% of supplier invoices settled upfront
- Flexible 20-to-90-day payment options tailored to the needs of each business
- Low interest rates 0.00% – 1.95% (monthly)
- Digital end-2-end solution with no systems integration
- Allows buyers to negotiate better terms and costs with their supplier, enabling them to boost their purchasing power, increase cash flow and optimize working capital.
Workeo is a win-win solution for buyers and suppliers; buyers can take advantage of additional funding days on existing payment terms while suppliers benefit from getting paid upfront.
In addition, Workeo provides a very competitive product from a cost perspective and our close-loop product (where the buyer can only use the credit line to purchase specific goods from predetermined supplier) allows for improved working capital management.
The digitization offered through the Workeo platform and virtual card means that the buyer can pay the supplier directly, securely, and automatically without the added middleman. The benefits of Workeo digitizing B2B payments have thus far been transformative for buyers and suppliers alike. By streamlining tedious AR/AP processes and giving suppliers real-time visibility into payment processes, with Workeo, buyers and suppliers can reduce the operational expenses associated with outdated payments processes.
To Conclude
The Workeo B2B BNPL solution fills a major gap in the working capital requirements for SMEs and provides digitization so all parties can more accurately manage and forecast cash flow. Over the past year, Workeo has experienced incredible growth in transactions and thus far has had a 0% default rate.
In November 2022, KEO filed its first U.S. Patent for its proprietary all-digital B2B inventory financing and payment solution, as it plans to roll out the solution to more regions across the globe.
As a FinTech operating across many countries in LATAM, KEO has been able to grant SMEs access to fair financial services for the very first time. Helping introduce thousands of businesses to the banking system through secure, 100% digital, innovative financial solutions, we’ve paved a path for them to grow their business and improve their everyday lives.
