Mercoa

Mercoa built their AI billpay agent for AP and spend management platforms seeking to increase virtual card adoption among their own customers. ​​‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌The founders assumed that platform operators would prioritize card volume growth because virtual cards generate higher margins and better data than ACH payments. They targeted mid-market and enterprise software companies offering bill payment features, believing these platforms lacked native automation to identify card-eligible invoices at scale. Early validation came when existing customers reported that manual invoice categorization created friction in their payment workflows. Mercoa discovered that their real problem wasn't convincing platforms to care about card volume—it was removing the operational burden preventing their end-users from actually using cards. When they automated invoice eligibility detection and supplier portal navigation, adoption accelerated noticeably. This suggested their targeting assumption held, but their value proposition needed reframing: they weren't selling card volume optimization to platforms, but rather removing friction that blocked their customers' purchasing teams from choosing cards naturally.