AI for procurement startup ScoutBee raises $12 million to expand its smarter supplier discovery suite

scoutbee, the developer of AI-powered supplier discovery suite that helps procurement teams see deep supplier insights to make more confident buying decisions, has secured $12 million in Series A funding to continue the innovation on its leading-edge AI-powered applications and to drive awareness, demand and new customer acquisition for its products. The round, which was led by its previous investors, brings the total funding raise to date to $15.5 million.

Founded in 2015 by procurement and operations experts, Christian Heinrich, Fabian Heinrich, Gregor Stühler, and Lee Galbraith, scoutbee offers procurement officers and their teams a smarter supplier discovery suite. Powered by AI and its carefully and continuously curated data that totals over 9 million suppliers, scoutbee brings together supplier information with deeper insights and a simple, digital process for strategic sourcing. scoutbee also offers its strategic sourcing solution in Europe and in the US. scoutbee received global recognition in May 2019 by the prestigious World Procurement Award organization with the “Highly Commended” award in technology.

“We see this funding event as a key milestone to deliver on our vision to make the lives of procurement professionals easier and the work they do even more impactful,” said Gregor Stühler, managing director of scoutbee. “We are excited to continue the healthy partnership and support of Toba Capital, Holtzbrinck Ventures and 42CAP.”

“scoutbee was founded by purchasing and operations experts who saw the big problems in supplier transparency, manual scouting and wasted time and money in today’s strategic procurement solutions,” said Wilder Ramsey, partner at Toba Capital. “We are thrilled to continue to partner with scoutbee to help them maintain the innovation in this market and to support their global expansion.”

Customers, including Audi, Airbus and more than 40 other companies, globally rely on scoutbee to deliver deeper supplier insights so they make more confident strategic sourcing and purchasing decisions.

“The procurement market is hungry for a disruptive and easy-to-implement solution like scoutbee’s,” said Jan Miczaika, partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. “While there are many procure-to-pay technologies for chief procurement officers and their teams, scoutbee, with its AI-powered technology, bridges a huge gap in supplier visibility and the process of sourcing strategic projects.”

scoutbee expanded operations into the US market in January 2019 with its US headquarters in Arlington, VA.

“This investment fuels our focus of growing our customer base and operations on two continents,” said Lee Galbraith, managing director. “The reception from procurement executives in the US has matched what we’ve seen in Europe – leaders want to see deeper supplier insights, perform strategic scouting faster and profit from faster time to market and innovation. Here in the US where manufacturers are scrambling to respond to imposed tariffs, we can help purchasing leaders evaluate suppliers with speed and precision to remain competitive.”