Berlin-based startup scoutbee, a leading supplier discovery platform, today closed a €54.1 million Series B round, led by Atomico and with participation from Lakestar and Next47, plus including existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, 42CAP and Toba Capital.
The investment establishes scoutbee as one of the fastest growing global SaaS procurement platforms and, as part of this investment round, Atomico Partner Hiro Tamura will join the company’s board.
scoutbee, founded in 2015, aims to help the right purchasers and the right suppliers connect, anywhere in the world, by delivering procurement teams a smarter supplier discovery suite. Powered by AI and continuously curated data, scoutbee traces the supply chain of millions of suppliers to bring together supplier information with deep insights and a simple, digital process for strategic sourcing.
Headquartered in Berlin and Washington D.C., scoutbee’s smart procurement technology is already utilized by major multinationals including Audi, Airbus, Caterpillar and Bosch, as well as 75+ other companies worldwide, to provide them more confident strategic sourcing and purchasing decisions. scoutbee received global recognition in May 2019 at the World Procurement Awards with the “Highly Commended” award for technology, and has to date raised €68.5 million in funding.
Gregor Stűhler, Co-founder and Managing Director of scoutbee, said, “The significant new funding, together with our new partnership with Atomico and Lakestar is an exciting milestone. We will leverage every aspect of our combined instinct, expertise and passion to develop our products and capture new markets. scoutbee as a solution is unrivalled in its specific capability for strategic scouting. Perhaps most exciting, today our team mission is stronger than ever – and by 2021, we aim to save global companies over €9 billion a year with our intelligent, transparent and fair supplier discovery platform”.
Hiro Tamura, Partner at Atomico, said, “Using databases and online searches in a vacuum, procurement professionals commonly don’t know what proportion of suppliers they have visibility over, nor the suppliers’ level of quality or experience. The industry requires far more effective information gathering. We are proud to partner with scoutbee’s talented and dedicated team who are focusing on exactly this – a smarter way to find suppliers. We were blown away by their deep knowledge in the procurement space in geographies from Asia, Europe and America, and their product-first approach to solving procurement for the world’s top-tier companies”.
The team will use the funding to further expand its R&D, accelerate customer growth and explore strategic acquisitions. scoutbee’s already diverse team will be scaled up from 120 staff today to around 220 across Berlin, Wurzburg and Washington D.C. by the end of 2020 (including new roles in engineering, AI/ML, product development, sales and marketing).
