Elias Apel
Podcast appearances as guest
Episode 25 - Elias Apel
In this episode, I sit down with Elias Apel, CEO of Lucanet.
On the podcast
Lucanet is about 25 years old, and some customers have used it for more than 20 years.
Elias joined Lucanet in mid-2018 to build its international partner business after a career in corporate finance and M&A, having implemented Lucanet for clients in 2011–12.
Elias succeeded a founder as CFO and became CEO after Hg became majority shareholder in 2022.
Lucanet is moving from a hybrid consulting-and-product model to a pure product model scaled through partners such as the Big Four.
Lucanet's ARR is growing about 40% a year with its cloud transition, split evenly between new customers and expansion.
Lucanet builds AI into its whole platform, for example cutting XBRL tagging of financial statements from days to minutes.
Every role at Lucanet must use AI, not to cut staff but to raise productivity, by about 50% in R&D for example.
Lucanet can build and test prototypes with customers in about five days, so it now acquires companies mainly for market share and local customer bases rather than technology.
CFOs want one platform to replace fragmented systems, and cash visibility across dozens of banks is still manual for many.
Stablecoins could be disruptive in the long term, but corporates are not yet ready.