Specialist platforms are transforming working capital strategies amid supply chain disruptions

As supply chain disruptions and higher financing costs persist, companies are turning to innovative platforms blending finance, procurement and treasury tools to unlock trapped cash, streamline operations and bolster resilience.

Companies seeking to unlock trapped cash and sharpen their short‑term liquidity are increasingly turning to specialised working capital optimisation platforms that blend finance, procurement and treasury capabilities. These systems , offering ...

supply‑chain finance, dynamic discounting, invoice automation and cash‑forecasting tools , are designed to shorten cash conversion cycles, reduce financing costs and improve supplier relationships across complex global supply chains.

C2FO has emerged as a prominent marketplace for early‑payment programmes that let suppliers receive faster settlement in exchange for discounts. According to the company, its working capital advisory combines analytics with expert guidance to reveal payment‑related opportunities and connect buyers with a large supplier network, enabling suppliers to access liquidity without defaulting to traditional loans. The platform’s model relies on dynamic pricing to balance buyers’ available cash against suppliers’ need for speedier receipts.

SAP’s Taulia and SAP Ariba represent two routes into enterprise finance and procurement integration. Taulia, now part of SAP, promotes dynamic discounting, invoice financing and supplier early‑payment schemes and highlights close integration with ERP environments to scale programmes internationally. SAP Ariba layers procurement, contract management and invoice‑to‑pay automation with supplier financing options to give buyers end‑to‑end visibility over spend and working capital , a proposition aimed mainly at larger organisations operating inside the SAP ecosystem.

PrimeRevenue positions itself as a multi‑funder supply‑chain finance hub, linking corporates, suppliers and banks to distribute liquidity at scale. The multi‑funder design is pitched as a way to increase programme capacity and resilience across geographies, supported by analytics and reporting to measure working‑capital performance.

Treasury‑centric providers such as Kyriba focus on real‑time cash visibility, forecasting and risk management. Kyriba’s working‑capital suite seeks to optimise payables and receivables, inject liquidity into supply chains and help firms model currency and interest‑rate exposure, supporting centralised treasury operations and strategic funding decisions.

Spend‑and‑payments platforms bring a different emphasis. Coupa Pay integrates payments, virtual cards and supplier financing into a broader spend‑management environment so companies can manage procurement, expenses and payment flows from a single interface. Tradeshift and Infor Nexus combine invoicing, payments and embedded financing with operational visibility , Tradeshift through a marketplace connecting funders, buyers and suppliers, and Infor Nexus by pairing real‑time shipment and inventory data with receivables visibility to inform financing and reduce operational risk.

Large financial‑technology and B2B network providers also compete in this space. FIS offers scalable receivables automation, dynamic discounting and supply‑chain finance built on its payments and banking infrastructure, while OpenText’s Business Network provides electronic invoicing, compliance and early‑payment options intended to streamline invoice‑to‑pay processes for enterprises with complex supplier ecosystems.

Beyond platform vendors, advisory and analytics tools are influencing how firms think about working‑capital strategy. Solver provides an Excel‑integrated optimisation tool to allocate short‑term investments and model monthly cash reserves. WNS markets cloud‑based working‑capital analytics with prescriptive what‑if simulations to surface cash‑release opportunities and audit targets. Consultancy and technology firms are also packaging AI and automation: Deloitte’s AI‑enhanced working‑capital workflow, offered via a marketplace, automates metric calculations, DSO optimisation and inventory analysis, while Panorad AI promotes an agent that claims to reduce working‑capital requirements through automated analysis of payables, receivables and inventory dynamics.

Each approach brings trade‑offs. Marketplace and discounting programmes can accelerate supplier receipts but may compress supplier margins or depend on broad buyer participation. Multi‑funder and bank‑led models raise complexity in governance and onboarding but can supply deeper pools of capital. Treasury and forecasting platforms deliver powerful visibility and analytics yet typically require mature finance teams and significant integration. For many buyers, embedding financing inside procurement or payments ecosystems reduces operational friction, but it can also lock firms into an incumbent vendor landscape.

Decision factors that should guide platform selection include the company’s size and digital maturity, the geographic and industry footprint of its supplier base, ERP and treasury integrations, desired control over payment terms, and the relative importance of supplier adoption speed versus programme scale. Industry data and vendor materials suggest that combining better cash‑flow forecasting with targeted supplier financing and invoice automation usually yields the strongest and most sustainable working‑capital improvements.

As supply‑chain disruption, higher financing costs and tighter liquidity cycles persist, companies are treating working capital not as a passive by‑product of operations but as an active lever for resilience and growth. The proliferation of specialist platforms, analytics tools and AI workflows gives treasuries and procurement teams a wider set of instruments to reclaim cash from the operating cycle , but success depends on pragmatic programme design, careful supplier engagement and the right mix of technology and finance partners.

Source: Noah Wire Services