Today, Next47 has the pleasure of joining Atomico and Lakestar as investors in Scoutbee’s $60M Series B. While procurement may seem highly esoteric to some, it has the power to be one of the biggest competitive advantages for most global organizations. That said, it is also one of the most complex and challenging areas in corporate supply chain management; and one that is ripe for change. Here’s why we’re so excited to welcome Scoutbee to our portfolio.
Imagine for a moment that you run procurement for a large organization. A bit part of your job is to ensure your company sources the best suppliers globally, at the most competitive price point. On paper, this seems to be a relatively straightforward task, but that could not be farther from the truth. The reality is, for most companies, scouting and sourcing suppliers is a complex and time-consuming process that is overly reliant on manual processes and spreadsheets. This is why bringing transparency and automation to supplier sourcing is a top priority for corporate procurement departments around the world.
Enter Scoutbee, a German startup founded in 2015 by three entrepreneurs with first-hand knowledge of the pain points facing global procurement departments. Scoutbee has combined AI and Big Data into a suite of products aimed at helping companies like Airbus, Audi and Bosch find the right suppliers of parts and components in milliseconds. Indeed, the insights Scoutbee makes available through its product suite have helped customers gain unprecedented levels of visibility into their supplier network and exponentially reduce sourcing time.
Like many other startups in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) space, Scoutbee is using technology to bring much needed transparency to a highly fragmented process. In this way, Scoutbee takes the guess-work and the grunt-work out of finding the right supplier. Next47 is proud to have the company join our growing portfolio of SCM startups, such as Bringg, Pando, Sennder, and Turvo. We are particularly excited about helping Scoutbee expand its already-impressive customer footprint through Next47’s extensive network and relationships. And we look forward to introducing more global organizations to Scoutbee’s technology in order to bring added efficiency to the procurement process.
