Conferma, the leading virtual card provider, has entered into a strategic partnership with the ground transportation automation and management platform, GroundSpan to facilitate simple, virtual payments for ground transportation.

The first-of-its-kind integration will enable corporates to pay for ground transportation easily with virtual cards powered by Conferma. The partnership will allow corporates to centralise more payment types within their travel programme, expanding virtual card use beyond core hotel and air payments.

The API integration is embedded in Conferma’s virtual card platform meaning nothing changes for the end user, while corporates can pay one bill every month to a single card issuer, simplifying the payments process by combining ground transport and hotel spend.

The strategic partnership was formed in direct response to customer demand for ground transportation integration.

Commenting on the integration, Kelly Cleeton, Head of Sales, Corporate Payment Solutions at Conferma, said: “Our customers have increasingly been asking for a ground transportation virtual card capability, so we’re delighted to have delivered this functionality through the market leading solution - GroundSpan, building on the existing benefits of virtual cards for hotel payments.

“Making payments easy is what we do, and this API integration does that for corporates and business travellers alike. Corporates will be able to use their existing virtual card accounts for another element of the business trip. It’s an important step closer to managing the total cost of trip through virtual cards.”

The formal partnership comes following a successful three-month pilot, which resulted in 5,000 bookings through the GroundSpan platform. A Travel and Meetings Manager from a leading technology and entertainment company that took part in the pilot commented: “The GroundSpan booking and management tool in partnership with Conferma payments gives our company piece of mind and protection required when our travelers book our global ground transportation vendors. The process is seamless and requires no additional work for our bookers vs. conventional credit card payments."

The partnership also provides Conferma’s market leading global issuing network access to the GroundSpan platform and the over 5,000 ground transportation vendors available . Within Conferma’s global ecosystem, businesses have access to all major card networks, over 150 connected booking platforms, and over 80 card issuers.

Tony Bonanno, President at GroundSpan, comments, "GroundSpan is dedicated to offer the highest levels of data protection and security.   The partnership with Conferma is natural evolution and expansion of our data protection and security practices in place today that protect our corporate and TMC clients. GroundSpan has the ability to connect corporates and TMCs with their preferred vendors across the globe utilizing legacy forms of payment and now we are excited to offer the option of Conferma virtual cards."