Corporate payments are becoming more powerful — and partnerships will define who wins

Commercial payments are entering a new phase of transformation, not just because volumes have grown — though they’ve reached around $100 trillion a year. It’s because the way businesses operate is fundamentally changing, as global trade digitises, platforms replace manual workflows and the demand grows for faster payments and more flexibility. Payments can no longer sit on the sidelines.

Yet across many of the world’s largest commercial sectors, payment experiences are less than ideal. In fleet and logistics, operators want to simplify fractured payment flows. In travel and hospitality, rising volumes are fuelling the demand for automated settlement. And manual claims and reimbursements are slowing operations and straining resources in healthcare and insurance. 

This gap creates both pressure and possibility. Across each of these industries, payments are evolving from a stand-alone, back-office function into a strategic capability, embedded into the platforms companies use to operate, manage risk and serve customers every day.

Meeting that shift requires more than incremental upgrades. It calls for new approaches, new technologies and deeper collaboration across the payments ecosystem.

At Mastercard, we see this shift as a moment to reimagine corporate payment experiences: making them more intelligent, automated and seamlessly embedded into everyday business workflows. That means supporting the digitisation of industries ripe for innovation, pairing transactions with data and insights and embedding secure payments directly into enterprise platforms and workflows.

And increasingly, the most meaningful progress is being driven through the power of partnership.

For more than a decade, Start Path, Mastercard’s award-winning global startup engagement programme, has supported high‑potential fintechs as they scale, providing access to Mastercard’s network, technology and expertise to co‑create solutions with customers and partners. Collaboration has always been at the programme’s core — helping startups and enterprises bring new capabilities to market faster.

Now, as corporate payments become more platform‑centric and industry‑specific, collaboration has never been more critical. That’s why we’re expanding Start Path with a dedicated Corporate Solutions focus, connecting fintech innovators with the ecosystems where their solutions can drive the greatest impact.

The first Start Path Corporate Solutions cohort reflects the diversity and momentum of innovation across commercial payments:

• Masraff is applying AI to automate expense management and policy compliance for enterprises operating across multiple markets.
• Simetrik is helping banks, fintechs and platforms reconcile millions of daily transactions through no-code, AI-driven automation.
• MediConCen is transforming insurance claims using agentic AI and blockchain to increase efficiency and transparency.
• Fleevo is modernising fleet payments and operations, unifying fuel, charging, maintenance and fraud detection into intelligent platforms.
• Zatlas is streamlining complex travel and hospitality payment flows by embedding automation directly into hotel and OTA ecosystems.
• Glass is digitising how governments and public institutions manage purchases and payments, replacing manual processes with secure, intelligent infrastructure for the next era of public finance.   

The future of corporate payments won’t be built by any one organisation alone. It will be shaped through partnerships that combine startup innovation with global scale — pairing deep industry expertise with trusted networks and secure infrastructure.

By expanding Start Path to corporate solutions, we’re creating a space for those partnerships to grow and compete more effectively in the digital global economy. Alongside this, Mastercard is continuing to invest in capabilities that simplify how companies pay and get paid, improve visibility and control and help businesses manage working capital more efficiently. Together, we can help businesses move faster and work harder, supporting smarter decision-making, more resilient operations and stronger results, powering the next chapter of global commerce.