FREENOW centralises payments with American Express

The FREENOW ground transportation application has teamed up with payment specialist American Express to enable businesses to centralise and streamline their booking, payment and expense management processes.

FACTS

• The new agreement will see the Free Now for Business platform connected to the American Express Business Travel Account (BTA) in seven European countries: UK, Ireland, Austria, Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

• The benefits of this strategic partnership include

  • Centralized payment of travel expenses with a single payment solution.

  • Better visibility and control of travel expenses. Travel data is consolidated into a single American Express electronic monthly statement to facilitate reconciliation and accounting processes.

  • Compliance with travel policy, ensuring the use of preferred suppliers.

  • Optimisation and reduction of administrative tasks, thanks to automated payment and invoicing that eliminates expense advances.

• This service is also expected to be extended to France during 2023.

CHALLENGES

• FREENOW continues to evolve its booking application into a mobility "super app". Since 2021, FREENOW has already been working to expand its multimodal offering by offering up to eight modes of mobility (taxi, VTC, car sharing and car rental, scooter, electric bike and scooter, public transport) within a single app. Now, the company is going one step further by becoming the first private platform to integrate public transport services in Germany.

• A clear B2B solution: In addition to providing greater cash flow flexibility, this partnership saves time in managing expense reports. The integration gives corporate travel managers more visibility and control over their employees' travel expenses.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Amex also offers clients more visibility and control over their travellers' expenses on the road, as well as integration of other types of corporate expenses such as air, rail and hotel transactions.

• AirPlus, the German corporate payments specialist has partnered with Uber for Business to simplify the payment of VTC rides. The traveller no longer has to pay and then get reimbursed: everything is centralised in the company's escrow account.