SAP Startup Spotlight: Trustpair

Trustpair is an all-in-one solution for detecting and preventing wire transfer fraud. It helps companies verify their suppliers’ bank details and automatically check their payments. More than 100 companies already rely on Trustpair’s technology, among them Kering, Airliquide, Faurecia, Bolloré, Decathlon, and many more. The solution enables customers to optimize and secure existing processes by digitizing time-consuming and risky manual tasks. In this interview, Baptiste Collot, CEO of Trustpair, talks about what his company has to offer and what’s next for the startup.

E-3 Magazine: How does your solution work?

Baptiste Collot: Managing supplier data decay in ERP systems is an obvious pain: 30 to 50 percent of data are obsolete in vendor master files. Trustpair enables financial teams to work on a daily basis with fresh and synced data to avoid any errors. It allows large corporations to fight wire transfer fraud by ensuring the beneficiary’s identity for each bank account. Our risk evaluation engine automatically enriches and controls bank and third-party information and delivers a binary risk assessment to guarantee the ownership of each bank account. The technology focuses on big data analysis to perform more efficient controls than manual processes. The platform automates reinforced controls at three main points of risk in the procure-to-pay process: verifying new supplier bank details and payment information change requests; auditing vendor master files continuously to manage the quality of supplier data; and checking every payment to detect any suspicious data.

What are the customer-side requirements? Do they need any special technology to use your solution?

Collot: Trustpair can be used either as a standalone solution by accessing the web application or it can be integrated in any technical environment thanks to the REST API. Any company using an ERP or a procurement solution can use Trustpair without disturbing their existing processes. As many of Trustpair’s clients use SAP software, we developed a connector that allows seamless integration of Trustpair services in SAP solutions like Ariba, ECC 6.0, and S/4 Hana.

Why did you start Trustpair to begin with?

Collot: We started Trustpair because fraud risk began to spread widely. Wire transfer fraud is a scam which aims to embezzle funds by usurping the identity of a third party in order for a company to make a payment for a service to a bank account that does not belong to the right supplier. It has been ten years now that companies have repeatedly fallen victim to fraud scams such as the ‘Fake President Fraud’. Nowadays, wire transfer fraud mainly incorporates business e-mail compromise techniques which involve sending fake bank details to a company via e-mail. This type of fraud happens more frequently now because bank account ownership is anonymous. To protect themselves, companies are using time-consuming and unsecure manual processes which are no match for the technological resources used by scammers. With Trustpair, we want to help companies combat wire transfer fraud in a more suitable way.

How are you connected to SAP?

Collot: Trustpair developed a connector for SAP that allows the seamless integration of Trustpair’s API in SAP solutions. Finance departments from major groups are now able to check supplier details directly in their ERP and work with proper data to ensure they pay the right supplier through the right bank account.

How has SAP.io’s involvement impacted your journey?

Collot: Before the SAP.io program, we only had external knowledge of SAP’s way of working, mainly communicated by integrators or clients. SAP.io Foundry helped us reach the SAP organization, get in touch with high-level contacts and mentors all over the world in many fields, ranging from sales to tech support. It permitted us to enhance our technical integration and get a better understanding of SAP solutions. Furthermore, it granted us access to the SAP sales network.

What’s next for Trustpair?

Collot: Trustpair continues its journey to become the world-leading solution used by finance departments to fight wire transfer fraud, of course! Regarding the SAP ecosystem, our solution will be available on the SAP Store soon, and we will continue to strengthen our collaboration with SAP teams. We aim to establish a more global presence as frontiers don’t stop fraudsters and our clients are international players. In fact, we just started our European expansion. We will also reinforce our relationships with prestigious partners, including consulting firms, banks, and other financial software providers. For example, Société Générale already distributes Trustpair as a bank offer to its corporate clients, and we recently partnered with Accenture to run global projects with large corporations.

Thank you for the interview.

Enjoyed this interview in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series? You might also like our piece on Winddle, a collaborative web platform that offers a unique end-to-end agile approach of supply chain management.