Inside Medius’ strategy to grow — and to grow Jacksonville’s fintech sector

Inside Medius’ strategy to grow — and to grow Jacksonville’s fintech sector (Courtesy of First Coast INNO) — For more than a decade, Jim Lucier helped lead one of the world’s largest expense management companies through rapid growth.

Now, he’s using the experience he gained as president of SAP Concur as well as at JPMorgan Chase and elsewhere to supercharge growth at Swedish payment management firm Medius, which opened its U.S. headquarters in Jacksonville earlier this year.

The global company entered the Jacksonville market with the acquisition of OnPay Solutions in 2022. One of the fastest-growing companies in the area, OnPay provided virtual card, ACH, check and wire payments for more than 400 customers.

That was a natural fit for Medius, which helps companies source, buy, contract, get invoices for and ultimately pay for goods and services by automating accounts payable tasks.

Medius was attracted to OnPay because of the company’s strength in payments.

It was attracted to Jacksonville, Lucier said in a recent conversation with the Business Journal, because of the access to talent provided by the location.

“Everything in business always comes down to people, and I think that we’ve got access to a tremendous amount of talent down there,” he said. “We can attract the kind of world class talent that we are looking for.”

Working out of an office tower in Brooklyn, Medius is already leaning into that talent pool. 

By acquiring OnPay, the company picked up about 30 employees, and has bolstered that number: About 100 people report to the local office, with about 50 employees on site.

Lucier is quickly adding people in sales and marketing, finance and human resources, as well as other functions.

Having that range of skills in one office is unusual for the company, with most of its offices being focused solely on sales or on technology development.

“Our plan is that Jacksonville is truly a multi-dimensional office full of cross functional people,” Lucier said. “Our growth plans are ambitious there.”

That means hiring is continuing at a rapid clip.

“We’re looking for everything,” he said. “I’m looking for pure technical people, people to actually write software for us. I’m looking for people to support our customers and make sure they’re successful.

While some of those workers are remote, Medius’ policy is that everyone associated with an office needs to be in two days a week, with some tasks such as sales having more in-office days. That system has worked out well, the CEO said, helping build the company’s culture as the headquarters grows. 

“One of the things that is appealing to me about Jacksonville is access to a more youthful workforce,” he said. “Those folks need and want an actual vibrant office to go to.”

That workforce will continue growing as the company grows, part of a plan to be the leading provider of services across the entire accounts payable ecosystem. Earlier this year, Medius acquired Expensya, a Tunisian company founded for former Microsoft engineers that has built up a commanding customer base, particularly in Europe.

Through those acquisitions and in-house development, the company is developing an end-to-end system that integrates a variety of cloud-based financial transaction products.

“If your company wants something, we help them buy it,” Lucier said. “If the company wants to make sure they got said good or service, we make sure they got it, and make sure it’s approved, it’s accounted for properly and its paid for.

“Out of the box, the CFO can actually see what they are spending money on.”

An ambitious goal, to be sure, Lucier acknowledges: “Well, if you’re gonna play ball might as well play to win, right?”

As the company grows, it is also looking to grow the financial technology sector in Jacksonville.

“I believe very strongly Jacksonville is up and coming,” he said. “I believe that there is a great groundswell of fintech happening there.”

For Jacksonville to attract other companies like Medius, it needs to continue on the path it’s on, Lucier said, including growing its downtown.

“I think the bones are there,” he said. “There needs to be a critical mass of people down there. These things are always in cycles: People have left the cities and now they’re coming back and the question is, how do you accelerate that.”