Coupa acquires BELLIN, targeting treasury management (Part 1: BELLIN Analysis, Treasury Background, TMS Components & Procurement / AP Intersections)

The worlds of procurement and finance continue to collide. Earlier today, Coupa announced it had acquired BELLIN, one of the few independent treasury management providers in the market. BELLIN offers a full-featured treasury management system (TMS).

TMS solutions typically include capabilities to support cash management, bank connectivity, cash/liquidity forecasting, risk management, accounting/compliance and payments.

BELLIN has historically competed in a market where many solutions are not entirely substitutes for each other (e.g., comparing SAP Treasury and Risk Management to Kyriba is not apples-to-apples).

The same could be said for Ion’s portfolio of solutions (e.g., Reval, IT2, Wallstreet Suite, Treasura, Openlink, City Financials + commodity management plays, etc.), FIS, GTreasury and others.

This Spend Matters Nexus brief sets the context for Coupa’s acquisition of BELLIN. It begins by introducing BELLIN and then provides insight into how a broad-based procurement/finance/spend suite such as Coupa dovetails with the treasury function.

Subsequent Nexus analysis will focus on fleshing out the benefits of bringing together treasury and P2P capabilities, looking at treasury management’s total addressable market (TAM) in the context of source-to-pay — and B2B payments! — as well as the implications of this transaction on the competitors in the market.

Jason Busch is Managing Partner of Azul Partners’ Investor Advisory Group. He works with sponsors, CEOs and boards on data-driven due diligence, M&A and strategy. Jason is also the lead author of Spend Matters Nexus, a private newsletter and subscription service. Disclosure: Azul Partners provided due diligence services to Coupa as part of this transaction.