Originally appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer by Joseph N. DiStefano

Corcentric, a Cherry Hill maker of software for businesses to track sales and spending, is spending $100 million for Vendorin, an automatic payments software company, based in Hattiesburg, Miss.

The deal is the latest example of a successful but small software firm bulking up to stay competitive against larger, well-financed rivals, such as Coupa Software in San Mateo, Calif., and AvidXchangein Charlotte, N.C..

The acquisition is Corcentric’s fourth since 2018, and its first since Bregal Sagemount, a New York investment firm, pumped $80 million into Corcentric last year with a mandate to boost its product line, including Vendorin’s software for accounts payable and receivable. Corcentric’s sales last year totaled $104 million.

Corcentric expects its more complete product line will enable clients to buy from fewer providers, keeping billing and updates simple.

Corcentric will employ 500, including nearly 100 at its offices in Cherry Hill and Willow Grove, after picking up Vendorin’s 44 employees. That’s up from 300 at Corcentric two years ago.

Corcentric says it has more than 2,000 customers, include global food makers such as Bimbo, Mondelez, and Nestle.

The company is buying Vendorin from Juvo Technologies, which owns a group of software companies and acquired Vendorin from its Omaha founder in 2016. Corcentric plans to keep the team and the Vendorin brand.

Vendorin’s InSeller payment system has won corporate customers away from banks and online payment-card companies, Matt Clark, president of Corcentric, said in a statement. The system has also persuaded some companies to drop the use of paper checks.

Decades after the first online bank transactions, a lot of business accounts “still get paid by paper check,” and many companies still find electronic payment a hassle, Clark added. So cheaper, simpler solutions are worth a premium.

Vendorin customers include large banks, consumer-product makers, auto and fuel companies, according to Robert Johnson, chief operating officer.

In 2018, Corcentric acquired Source One Management Services LLC, a Willow Grove- and Chicago-based procurement-sourcing services firm. In 2019 Corcentric bought NetSend, an electronic-billing company, and Determine, a cloud-based payments provider.

Corcentric began as a business unit at Clark’s father Douglas Clark’s company, AmeriQuest Business Services, which supplied leasing, maintenance, logistics software, and other support services to trucking companies serving Mondelez predecessor Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, and other big food firms.

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The elder Clark, a CPA, and former race-car driver and investment banker at the old Drexel Firestone firm, founded AmeriQuest in 1997. He later renamed Corcentric after that proved to be the company’s fastest-growing business. A South Jersey native, he remains the company’s chief executive.