Medius is a company that links invoice capture, processing, and payment to replace the worry and wondering of managing AP with calm and confidence. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Medius CEO Jim Lucier to learn more.
Jim Lucier’s Background
Lucier joined Medius in September 2021 and prior to that held a number of senior leadership roles, most recently as President of SAP Concur. “Prior to joining Medius, I held various leadership roles at Concur, including Chief Revenue Officer for North America, Chief Customer Officer, and Vice President for Business Development. In 2021, I joined the team at Medius after Per Ackerberg stepped down to pursue new opportunities closer to home. I joined Medius because I believe there is a huge opportunity to transform the ‘Office of the CFO’ by combining highly specialized solutions under a single umbrella platform, while keeping high levels of innovation, collaboration and agility.”
“As the CEO of Medius, my day-to-day switches up all the time. My primary responsibilities include leading the overall strategic direction of the company, driving growth and profitability, overseeing operations and performance, ensuring our clients’ needs are constantly being met, and fostering a strong company culture which is an area I’m particularly seasoned in. In my past role at SAP Concur, the team won a significant US government contract and I needed to build an entirely new organization, fast. I ended up growing the team from the ground up in less than a year. We’ve had to have this same kind of transformation and growth in the US market at Medius.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Medius so far? Lucier shared:
“All of my favorite memories involve customers and hearing about the success they have had with our products and services. It’s the entire reason we are here. When we significantly reduce the time spent by any organization on various Source to Pay activities, we have helped that organization free time and resources to spend on what it is they do best. When we reduce costs for our customers, they have more to invest in their own growth.”
Challenges Faced
Has the current macroeconomic climate had any effect on the company? Lucier acknowledged:
“Of course, like many businesses, we have faced challenges and had to adapt our strategies to navigate through these uncertain times. However, between Medius’ tech stack and the relationships we have with our customers, we’ve been able to mitigate the worst of the effects and position ourselves for continued growth.”
Core Products
What are Medius’ core products and features? Lucier explained:
“Medius specializes in providing cloud-based solutions for accounts payable automation and spend management. We offer a suite of applications to manage the entire Source to Pay process. Medius goes far beyond basic automation by using artificial intelligence to do much of the work. We also just acquired Expensya, which adds AI-enabled, mobile-first, employee spend management capabilities to our AP automation platform.”
Evolution Of Medius’ Technology
How has Medius’s technology evolved since launching? Lucier noted:
“Since launching, Medius has continuously evolved its technology to meet the changing needs of our customers and the market. We have invested in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to enhance automation and improve accuracy in invoice processing. Our solutions have become more intuitive, scalable, and integrated with other enterprise systems.”
Expensya Acquisition
In late July, Medius announced it completed a deal to buy expense management software company Expensya. How did the deal to buy Expensya come together and what are the synergies that will be generated from this deal? Lucier pointed out:
“Expensya has built a reputation around its cutting-edge AI-enabled expense management software and user-friendly interface, and we recognized the potential benefits of joining forces and saw an opportunity to combine our strengths and resources for mutual growth. In particular, customers will benefit tremendously by understanding and being able to take action on much more of their spend across our platform.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Medius’s most significant milestones? Lucier cited:
“1.) Medius was founded in 2001, with tK-Rauta (Finnish retailer) or Hallins Verkstäder (Swedish manufacturer) as the company’s first customers.
2.) In 2013, Medius’ cloud solution was released, integrating cloud technology into the company’s accounts payable solution. This ultimately allows customers to measure and report on performance within the AP department, giving management actionable insights into how to optimize AP processes.
3.) Medius has managed integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP, two of the world’s leading ERP solutions, for eight years, starting in 2015.
4.) Artificial intelligence and machine learning were introduced within the first Medius Capture solution in 2017.
5.) Medius Capture has onboarded more than 1100 customers since the launch of native capture in APA in 2018 (first customer signed in May 2018).
5a.) Approximately 45% of these customers are migrations from other capture solutions and outsourced scanning.
5b.) One of the reasons customers choose Medius is that almost no manual keying is required, despite most of the invoices being PO invoices where line-level details are extracted. Most importantly – this is achieved without templates – AI and Machine Learning are used to remove configuration and maintenance and allow the solution to adapt.
5c.) Medius Capture processes more than 2.2 million invoices a month
6.) Medius acquired Wax Digital, an industry-leading procurement solutions provider headquartered in the U.K., in November 2019, extending the Medius platform into full source-to-pay capabilities.
7.) In 2022, Medius integrated with Oracle NetSuite, enabling customers to cut down on maverick spending and implement widespread automated spend control as well as purchase orders and approvals.
8.) Medius acquired OnPay Solutions, an invoice payments provider based in Jacksonville, FL, US, in March 2022 to integrate payment processing – AP automation’s ‘last mile’ – directly into its source-to-pay platform.
9.) In June 2023, Medius announced plans to acquire Expensya. Expensya uses artificial intelligence to eliminate manual data entry and automate the processing of expenses. With a workforce of 200 individuals representing 20 different nationalities spread across four countries, Expensya has more than 6,000 clients and more than 700,000 users across 100 countries.
10.) Medius’ best-in-class customer has a straight-through processing (STP) rate of 99% – note from capture to it is being paid. Many competitors exclude capture from the STP rate as capture is still a very manual process – but not for Medius.
11.) 97% of all e-invoices are touchless, and that is without the involvement of IT to help with configuration, business rules, and maintenance of mapping templates. Data extraction is this high because of AI and Machine Learning. Medius is unique in the way e-invoices are processed and has therefore applied for a patent.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Lucier about customer success stories, he replied:
“1.) Medius Pay helps Coastal Construction manage payments in a single automated solution
1b.) Summary: Coastal Construction Products, a prominent distributor of construction materials in the US, adopted Medius Pay and was able to revolutionize its payment workflows. By overcoming the challenges of the manual payment process, Coastal was able to strengthen vendor relations and leverage virtual card payment to even generate additional revenue through cash back rewards on AP spend.
2a.) Summary: This inspiring case study demonstrates how technology-driven solutions have empowered Viking Line to navigate the challenges of the maritime industry while forging a greener and more sustainable future. From its inaugural voyage in 1959 to its current status as a major player connecting Finland, Sweden, and the Aland Islands, Viking Line, a leading Baltic Sea ferry operator, has recognized the need for modernization, which is ultimately what led the company to turn to Medius AP Automation and Medius Procurement to optimize accounts payable and procurement processes.”
Funding/Revenue
After asking Lucier about the company’s revenue and funding, he revealed:
“Medius is fortunate to have two high quality private equity companies as owners– Marlin Equity Partners and Advent International. We are well funded and our owners are supportive of our growth ambitions. We all agree there is a tremendous global opportunity to truly transform the B2B financial supply chain, and that Medius is uniquely positioned with market leading technology. Unfortunately, we do not disclose revenues since we are privately held.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Medius pursuing? Lucier assessed:
“Medius is targeting a significant portion of the global market for accounts payable automation and spend management, which is expected to reach USD 2,721.55 million in 2023 and grow at a CAGR of 11.84% to reach USD 4,762.14 million by 2028. As the market continues to grow and organizations recognize the importance of digital transformation in these areas, we aim to capture a substantial share of the expanding TAM.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Medius from its competition? Lucier affirmed:
“Great question. There are a number of companies who claim to automate AP, and there are a number of companies who have some components of a Source-to-Pay (S2P) platform. Almost all of them seek to replicate the current paper process for their customers– take a copy of a paper invoice and route it around an organization for account coding and approvals. There is some limited value to this, for sure, but it doesn’t reimagine the overall process nor does it unleash the real value of AI led automation. That’s why Medius makes AP autonomous – using intelligent technology to reimagine how invoices move into and through a business. We have deep expertise in accounts payable automation and spend management, and we use our advanced, autonomous technology together with our pre-built connectors to leading ERP solutions to deliver a proven track record of successful implementations backed by exceptional customer experiences. This makes Medius the preferred choice for many organizations.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Medius’s future company goals? Lucier pointed out:
“We want to accelerate our market-leading innovation and deliver more value to our customers. With Expensya added to our portfolio, we have the opportunity to lead the industry in the development and delivery of powerful AI-enabled spend management solutions to help financial leaders get a holistic view of their organization’s financial position, reduce fraud, and help transform the Office of the CFO.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? Lucier concluded:
“Invoice fraud is one of the fastest growing types of white-collar crime in the US, and I’m glad to be leading a company working to help companies detect and reduce fraud in the AP process. We will work tirelessly to help our customers stay ahead of the nefarious actors as they get more and more sophisticated.”
