I Need Tours cuts supplier onboarding from six weeks to under two with Modulr

Opening a destination meant a new bank agreement

I Need Tours had a clear expansion strategy: build out across the Americas, then move into Asia. As an Italian-founded business with strong European roots, their existing payments setup worked well within the eurozone. Moving beyond it was a different problem entirely as each new destination brought its own currency requirements, its own payment conditions, and its own setup process. Getting a supplier live could take up to six weeks.

It showed up in contract negotiations. Deals that made commercial sense were falling through, because nobody could confirm the payment terms early enough to keep the negotiation on track. I Need Tours runs on direct supplier contracts, so a supplier who cannot be paid easily does not sign. Marco Stronati, co-founder and COO, describes what opening a destination used to involve: “If we wanted to open a new destination, we had to go to the bank, sign specific agreements, and repeat the process country by country.”

One way to pay, in every market

I Need Tours adopted Modulr’s payments automation platform and virtual cards to standardise supplier payments across markets. The change was simple: payment conditions could be agreed at the start of contract negotiations rather than becoming a separate problem to solve for each new destination.

What replaced the country-by-country bank agreement was a single, standardised way to pay. Virtual cards issued through Modulr are accepted by the hotels and local suppliers that the team contracts with, where other methods are not: local payments need an account in-market, and B2B platforms only work if both parties are already onboarded. Because Modulr provides the accounts and the cards, opening a new destination no longer needs a new payment setup. The team signs the supplier, issues as many virtual cards as needed, and starts making payments.

“Thanks to Modulr, we don’t need any special agreement with the bank,” Marco says. “Now, we just sign the contract with the supplier and start processing payments.”

Onboarding times fell immediately. As Marco puts it: “The time from contract signature to going live was reduced from three to six weeks to one-and-a-half or two weeks.” 

162 new suppliers in a year

In one year, I Need Tours grew its supplier network from 430 to 592, adding 162 new partnerships without adding anyone to handle the payments.

Settlement times improved too. Payments to local providers now typically settle within one to two days, up to 85 per cent faster than before. Suppliers can be told at the first conversation how and when they will be paid, which is the point at which negotiations used to stall.

The speed comes from how the payment is made: the card is issued to the supplier with the funds already sitting behind it, ready to be charged when the supplier chooses, rather than the supplier raising an invoice and waiting for a bank payment to be pushed to them. 

Someone to call when a payment does not work 

 For I Need Tours, the change went beyond what the platform could automate. As the payments team adapted to new workflows across multiple markets, Marco emphasised that one thing stood out above the platform itself: the option of picking up the phone and speaking to a real person who knew travel and knew how to help.

By the second half of 2025, the entire payments team had access to the platform. The operational foundations for the next phase of growth were in place.

The Americas finished early

As part of its growth strategy, I Need Tours had planned to complete its Americas expansion before turning to Asia-Pacific. With no bank agreement to negotiate for each new country, the Americas expansion finished ahead of the date in the plan. “Thanks to Modulr, we were able to cover the entire American continent earlier than expected and start working on Asia-Pacific destinations sooner,” Marco says.

Where I Need Tours is now

I Need Tours set out to build a catalogue it had tested itself, in every market its customers wanted to travel to. The constraint on that was never the catalogue. It was how long it took to get a supplier to the point where they could be paid, and that question now gets answered on the first call. In 12 months the team cut supplier onboarding from up to six weeks to under two, added 162 suppliers, and reached the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Oceania ahead of schedule, without hiring anyone to handle the payments.

See how Modulr automates payments for travel businesses.