Tech Mahindra has joined hands with Mastercard to bring payments into the software that large companies already use to buy goods and pay suppliers. Under the partnership, announced from Pune on 26 October, Mastercard’s virtual card and embedded payment capabilities will be built directly into enterprise resource planning (ERP) and procurement platforms, with Tech Mahindra handling the integration and transformation work.
The two companies say the tie-up is aimed at enterprises that want modern commercial payments without ripping out the technology they have already invested in. The goal is to help them optimise working capital, tighten spend controls, speed up payment execution and reconciliation, and make it simpler to bring suppliers on board.
Payments inside the procure-to-pay flow
Mastercard’s capabilities will be integrated with leading ERPs as well as procure-to-pay and source-to-pay platforms. In practice, that means a purchase approved inside a procurement system can be paid through a secure virtual card or other Mastercard rail from within the same workflow, rather than through a separate banking or payments portal.
Tech Mahindra said the integration will rely on APIs, payment automation, real-time reconciliation, fraud management and stronger payment controls. The intended result is less manual work across finance, treasury, accounts payable, procurement and supplier management, along with better visibility into where money is going.
Why B2B payments are the next embedded finance frontier
Consumer payments in India and across the world have become instant and largely invisible, but business-to-business payments still run heavily on invoices, approvals and bank transfers that are reconciled by hand. Companies are also dealing with supply-chain volatility, pressure on working capital, fragmented supplier bases and slow approval chains. The partners argue that traditional B2B payment systems add friction to onboarding and reconciliation and give finance teams limited real-time visibility.
Embedding payments in the systems where spending decisions are made is how card networks and IT services firms are trying to close that gap. Virtual cards, in particular, let companies issue single-use or controlled card numbers for specific suppliers or invoices, which helps with both fraud control and cash-flow timing.
What the leaders said
“Enterprises should not have to choose between modern payment capabilities and the technology investments they already rely on,” said Roshan Shetty, BFSI and Public Sector Head, Americas, Tech Mahindra. He said the partnership brings payments “directly into the flow of procurement and finance” and will let enterprises use agentic AI workflows to modernise at their own pace while giving suppliers a faster, more connected experience.
Rebecca Meeker, SVP of B2B Platforms and Embedded Finance at Mastercard, said embedding payments in the platforms enterprises use every day can turn commercial payments “from a manual process into an integrated, intelligent part of the procurement and finance workflow”, helping organisations automate, improve control and optimise working capital.
A busy week for Tech Mahindra’s BFSI play
The Mastercard partnership follows Tech Mahindra’s acquisition of Finastra’s cash management product suite, announced last week, as the Pune-headquartered IT services company deepens its presence in banking and payments technology. Together, the two moves point to a strategy of owning more of the transaction banking and corporate payments stack, from bank-side cash management to enterprise-side payables.
Financial terms of the Mastercard partnership were not disclosed, and the companies did not name specific ERP platforms or launch clients. For corporate treasurers and CFOs, the more important signal is direction: B2B payments are moving into the same software where purchasing and finance decisions are already made, and AI-driven automation is set to play a growing role in how those payments are approved, executed and reconciled.
