A Game-Changer: SUNRATE Builds a Robust Infrastructure to Simplify Cross-Border B2B Payments for Global Businesses

SUNRATE, a digital payment platform, offers intelligent global payment and treasury solutions to clients around the globe. It has a presence in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, and London, supporting clients with international business in over 130 countries. As a strategic partner with top banks like Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, and the principal member of Mastercard and Visa, the company continually provides one-stop digital services to global businesses.

Recently, SUNRATE closed Series-C round funding led by SoftBank Ventures Asia and joined by the new and previous investors. In addition to the previous investors (Redpoint China, JAFCO Asia, China Growth Capital, and K2VC), the new ones that invested in the company include Banyan Pacific Capital and TDF Impact Investment.

The Silicon Review reached out to SUNRATE’s Shanghai headquarters and spoke with Joshua Bao, who co-founded the company. Here’s what he said.

“We have acquired licenses from the regulatory bodies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Australia. Furthermore, our top executives are experts in global finance, who hail from prestigious professional and academic backgrounds.”

“By blending a solution-based approach and a deep understanding of the B2B finance landscape, we pride ourselves on providing products that offer high flexibility. Going forward, we will continue to empower our clients with the best possible solutions for global business development by co-operating with large clearing banks, commercial banks, and card schemes while continuing to innovate payment solutions to suit their business needs.”

Transforming the Cross-Border Payments Landscape

Compared to Business-to-Consumer payment technology, electronic B2B payments have significantly lagged in adoption across industries for years. One area of payments that is growing fast yet remains largely untapped is cross-border B2B trade.

SUNRATE has a great product matrix, and each one is designed to assist clients in overcoming business challenges. International payment, corporate card issuance, global collection, risk and treasury management SaaS platform, and banking-as-a-service are among them.

At SUNRATE, small and medium businesses get access to lower transaction costs and better exchange rates by leveraging both the international and local settlement networks. The company’s smart routing system automatically matches clients’ payments with efficient clearing pathways for fast and cost-effective transactions. In this way, the fund arrival time is reduced from a few days to the same day (T+0). Instead of a prolonged settlement period, clients can pay their out-of-country customers suppliers, and vendors way faster, with little to no friction points.

Diversifying its product portfolio is not enough; SUNRATE has also built a stronger payment infrastructure through SaaS modules, establishing its market leadership position. Taking into account the risks that SMEs may encounter in their operations, such as FX risk. Clients can manage their documents or track their payments through SUNRATE's treasury SaaS modules - part of the company's effort to help businesses digitize their payment processes.

Collaborating for Success

“We often speak to our clients to understand their business needs to provide them with diversified products. Not only are our products in line with clients’ business needs, but we also invest our resources in product innovation to ensure our offerings are diversified for clients across industries.”

SUNRATE serves clients across a wide range of sectors, including B2B trade, cross-border e-commerce, platforms, and institutions as well as online travel. For example, last year, SUNRATE partnered with Trustana, a B2B trade platform, to provide settlement services for Asia Pacific’s food trade industry. With the agri-food sector contributing $717 Billion to economies across Southeast Asia coupled with developments in the B2B trade space, there was a clear opportunity for SUNRATE and Trustana to come together to deliver a solution for Trustana’s customers. This partnership will increase the speed with which a range of food products can be made available in Asian markets. Trustana’s customers, buyers, and suppliers will also gain access to services, including live FX rates and fast payment processing.

Joshua Bao | Co-Founder

Joshua Bao is a co-founder of SUNRATE. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial technology sector, building payment solutions for SMEs. Joshua began his career at Citibank, where he directed foreign exchange and investment transitions across APAC regions.

Having witnessed the payment issues first-hand, he and his team were inspired to create SUNRATE — to help SMEs access fast, cost-effective, and safe cross-border transactions.

“By blending a solution-based approach and a deep understanding of the B2B finance landscape, we pride ourselves on providing products that offer high flexibility.”

“Going forward, we will continue to empower our clients with the best possible solutions for global business development by co-operating with large clearing banks, commercial banks, and card schemes while continuing to innovate payment solutions to suit their business needs.”