Coupa is a provider of business spend management solutions suite. They have announced their acquisition of BELLIN, a treasury management provider, in a deal that is part of a plan by Coupa to create bank connectivity for B2B payments.
In addition to that, they also want to offer treasury depth of capabilities, procurement synergies, and create accounts payable. Their efforts are part of a trend in the financial industry where they try to make improvements to source-to-pay and procure-to-pay solutions.
The terms of the transactions were not disclosed. In an interview, Coupa said that BELLIN’s strengths come from their control over cash, forecasting, and liquidity. Coupa added that customers want to see where their money is, at any given time, and suppliers like to know where payments are in the approval process.
B2B Payment insights
Such capabilities give customers a kind of visibility similar to the tracking of packages delivered to their homes. The acquisition will have Coupa Treasury Management focusing on three major areas:
- Enhanced B2B Payments that include more bank connectivity options and more in-depth payment fraud tools.
- Reduce blind spots by introducing ways to identify market trends and gain real-time visibility into working capital management. Also included are forecasting capabilities, supplier negotiation support, earlier clarity on projected spending, and insight into contract risks that may affect cash flow.
- Improvements in cost containment that include netting lower payment charges and allow businesses to form in-house banks.
BELLIN, a 20-year-old German company, seems perfectly suited to the new vision.
Coupa’s unified platform
Coupa has spent money acquiring more than 10 companies in its history. The goal seems to be integrating firms with intellectual property and capabilities that are market-ready. With all these as part of one unified platform, convenience becomes the name of the game.
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