Medius Expands Its Range

To expand its solution footprint beyond AP and S2P, Medius, a leading global provider of AP invoice automation solutions in the cloud, announced its intent to acquire Expensya, a provider of automated expense management solutions. The deal is expected to close within 30 days and terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Medius utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to link and streamline invoice capture, processing, and payment processes — processing $180 billion in annual spend through its system. Its acquisition of Expensya expands that technology into the complementary area of expense management that it refers to as “employee-initiated spend.”

Expensya solutions empower its customer’s employees to spend independently while maintaining budgetary control. Even more important is the enablement of organizations to transition from retroactively tracking expenses to pre-approving budgets — all leading to improvements to the bottom line.

A Complementary Marriage of Invoice and Expense Management

Medius executives believe that that expense management area is highly complementary to AP automation and that that the combined companies have a shared AI vision that will lead to applications that can truly transform finance and AP departments, opening the door to more global customers where e-invoicing mandates exist. Enterprises are benefiting from this innovative technology and streamlining expense and payment activities. Solutions providers in both markets are also exploring mergers to combine AI technologies and enhance their offerings and broaden their customer base. Currently, Expensya serves 6,000 global customers (700,000 active users) in more than 100 countries.

“Medius has quietly developed a highly formidable suite of solutions in the S2P space, led by its AP automation solution which Ardent Partners rated as a Market Leader in our recent 2023 ePayables Technology Advisor Report,” said Andrew Bartolini, founder and chief research officer at Ardent Partners. “Acquiring an AI-led expense management solution is natural fit for the company and fits well with is larger growth strategy.”

According to Jim Lucier, CEO of Medius, “Expensya has developed a leading employee spend management solution in Europe, with innovative features and AI-powered innovation. Its founders, Karim and Jihed, and its leadership team share our ambition to transform the spend management category using the power of automation and AI,” Lucier said. “Together, we can offer CFOs solutions that can help them transform finance while empowering their teams.”

The merger is part of Medius’ larger strategy to lead AP automation with robust payment capabilities and industry-leading control and fraud detection. Lucier explains that Expensya’s powerful AI-enabled, mobile-first, employee spend management functionalities not only complement but also strengthen Medius’ broader solution offerings in procurement, sourcing, contracts, and supplier onboarding. While the company is present in 102 countries with 4,000 global customers, the acquisition leverages deeper market penetration and exposure to new coverage areas.

Meeting Mid-sized Needs

A customer base on the radar for both companies is mid-sized organizations. Karim Jouini, CEO of Expensya, explains that “mid-size organizations and their CFOs are clearly looking for one common platform to efficiently manage all their spend. By combining Expensya’s employee spend management solution and payment cards, with Medius’s AP automation suite, the companies can cover the entire indirect spend of customers and apply the power of AI to help finance teams optimize costs and processes.”

Growth on the Horizon

While both Medius and Expensya have a global presence, the acquisition is one of the largest in the MENA region. Expensya experienced significant growth within the last two years, which was not lost on Medius. Expensya doubled its reoccurring revenue and increased its headcount to more than 200 employees based primarily in Tunisia, France, and Germany. Medius intends to continue to offer Expensya’s products, increase investment to accelerate innovation, and integrate those technologies into its offerings.

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Tagged in: Acquisitions, Solution Providers, Technology