Mastercard Launches New Product Innovation to Address Unmet Needs of the Middle Market

Today, Mastercard announced Mastercard Mid-Market Accelerator, its latest suite of small and medium-sized (SME) solutions designed for financial providers to meet the unique needs of their middle market customers. The new offering will be available in the U.S. initially, with plans to scale globally. It combines Mastercard’s digital payments technology and several of its value-added services with enhanced features from leading partners that provide transparency, automation, and security. There is an untapped opportunity to support the growth and digitization of middle market companies, specifically the lower-middle market, which is broadly defined as companies with annual revenues between $10M and $100M, or with roughly 50-250 employees. New insights from Mastercard research revealed that fewer than 10 percent of financial providers offered services that support holistic financial visibility – exposing a significant capability gap for the segment. In parallel, middle market companies are placing increasing importance on tailored solutions, so much so that other Mastercard research showed four out of 10 would switch providers if offered products with a better fit. “Mastercard Mid-Market Accelerator reinforces our commitment to powering commerce for businesses of all sizes and supporting companies along every stage of their growth journey,” said Jane Prokop, executive vice president and global head of small and medium enterprises at Mastercard. “With the launch of these dedicated solutions, Mastercard aims to address the longstanding barriers that have blocked midsize companies from accessing bespoke tools fit for their sophisticated needs.” Introducing a new solution suite to empower the middle market Mastercard Mid-Market Accelerator provides a flexible, robust blend of solutions that financial providers can custom-select to meet middle market customers wherever they are in their journeys.

• New Mastercard business card tailored for the middle market offers a curated set of select Mastercard card benefits from existing small business and commercial card programs, plus new rewards designed for the segment. The card is available in both physical and virtual card options, providing midsize companies with more flexibility, choice and spending control with every transaction.
• Cash Flow Management (via Trovata): securely automates the aggregation and categorization of data across multiple banks, enabling finance and treasury teams to analyze cash flow trends, forecast liquidity and make smarter, data-driven decisions in near real-time. Trovata is further expanding its payments capabilities by integrating with Mastercard's virtual card platform, which will make supplier payments more efficient and secure for midsize companies.
• Expense Management (via Navan): powers improved expense management with embedded virtual cards that bring robust spend controls to drive policy compliance and offer transaction-level insights to automate reconciliation and provide real-time spend visibility. Enhanced Security: The benefits of the Mastercard network include ID Theft Protection™, HealthLock, Zero Liability Protection and more, as well as the enhanced control and security of virtual cards. Scaling with partners

The company is innovating with top players from across the ecosystem to support midsize businesses in the U.S., its first target market. Mastercard will collaborate with innovative providers like Citizens to bring the card to their middle market customers, and with key fintech providers to deliver select tools fit for the segment’s most critical needs. “As trusted advisers to our clients, we know firsthand that the middle market has a set of unique characteristics and pain points that require tailor-made solutions to fit their needs,” said Rodrigo Sanchez, head of commercial card solutions at Citizens. “This presents a major opportunity for collaboration to meet them where they are and help advance the growth of this important sector.” “Historically, processes like expense management can be manual and time-consuming, which is especially draining for middle market companies with leaner teams and resources,” said Michael Sindicich, CEO of Navan Expense. “Adding Navan’s expense management capabilities into Mastercard’s new solution suite can be a game-changer, enabling businesses to focus on what matters — growing and scaling.” “We’re modernizing finance and treasury by democratizing bank data and automating cash workflows,” said Brett Turner, Founder and CEO, Trovata. “As a tech platform for business’ ‘trove of financial data,’ Trovata does the heavy lifting so that organizations, including those that sit within the middle market, can focus on the strategic aspects of their business. We aggregate, transform, and store their bank data as a managed service to power next-level business intelligence, payments, and working capital optimization in near real-time.”