Press Release: $10M Series A Round

EN Version: Procurement software company Archlet raises $10 million to disrupt the market for strategic sourcing software

Zurich, Switzerland, September 30th, 2021 – Archlet, the AI-based sourcing platform, today announced the closing of a $10 million Series-A round to fuel its rapid growth. The investment was led by HV Capital while existing investors Wingman Ventures, Senovo, and La Famiglia also participated. Business Angel Matthias Hilpert further completed the round and will continue to support Archlet on its journey. As Archlet’s Seed Round was published only a few months ago, this investment is another testimony to Archlet’s strong performance and the high expectations for future growth. The additional capital allows Archlet to further boost product development and to expand into new markets.

Archlet was founded in 2019 and has since then won clients such as PepsiCo, Emmi & Deutsche Bahn. With its innovative and user-friendly sourcing software product, Archlet frees company buyers from the dreaded spreadsheet analysis.

“Today’s procurement software is stuck in the past and Excel is still the go-to tool for collecting and analyzing supplier quotations. But the times are changing, and the market for strategic sourcing software is being disrupted by an increased demand for user-friendly products. At Archlet, we are leading the way with our mission to provide an unprecedented user-first experience where everyone in the department collaborates in the same tool,” says Tim Grunow, Co-Founder of Archlet.

Procurement departments are facing unparalleled pressure to create bottom-line savings while simultaneously diversifying risks, increasing sustainability, and improving supplier diversity. As part of the new normal, this pressure will only increase. However, the sourcing software solutions capable of including these parameters are too complicated to use, making sourcing a tedious experience. Archlet is the exception to the rule with its focus on providing an intuitive user interface and driving broad user adoption.

“Unlike traditional sourcing analysis solutions, which are mainly focused on simple price minimization, Archlet lets users easily include all relevant data including non-cost components such as sustainability, risk, or diversity scores in their decision making. We believe Archlet can play a leading role in optimising buying decisions,” says Felix Kluehr, Partner at HV Capital.

Since 2019, the Archlet sourcing platform has empowered both SMEs and large corporations operating in several different industries across Europe and the US to optimize more than $20 billion in spending. Archlet’s customers report an additional financial savings of up to 15% compared to previous purchasing activities, with an up to tenfold decrease in manual activities.

About Archlet

Archlet was founded in 2019 by Lukas Wawrla, Jakob Manz, and Tim Grunow. The company then grew quickly over the past 18 months from the 3 founders to more than 30 people who are serving customers around the world.

Archlet’s mission is to empower buyers in their sourcing process by replacing error-prone and time-consuming offer collection through email and analysis in Excel with a robust data-driven solution. Powered by advanced analytics and data science, Archlet scans through supplier offers and creates transparency across relevant sources to enable data-based supplier negotiations and decision-making. This empowers buyers to identify the optimal sourcing strategy based not only on price but also on other increasingly important factors, such as sustainability, supply chain risks, or other qualitative parameters. Archlet offers its cloud-based advanced sourcing solution to SMEs and large enterprises across different industries. The SaaS startup is an official spin-off company of ETH Zurich.

About HV Capital

Since 2000 HV Capital has invested in Internet and technology companies through various generations of funds and is one of the most successful and financially strongest early-stage and growth investors in Europe. HV Capital has invested in around 200 companies, including Zalando, Delivery Hero, FlixMobility, Depop and SumUp. The total of all HV Funds amounts to €1.7 billion. The company supports startups with capital between €500,000 and €50 million. This makes HV Capital one of the few venture capitalists in Europe that can finance startups through all growth phases.

About Senovo

Senovo is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Munich and Berlin that partners with exceptional founders building global B2B SaaS category-leaders from Europe. As a European first-mover, since 2013 the fund invests into a new generation of B2B software startups which enable the digitalization of medium and large enterprises. Their focus is primarily on supporting teams working in the areas of process optimization, industry 4.0 and data-enabled solutions. Senovo joins the journey after a company has first revenues in a late Seed or Series A round. Their team of SaaS specialists seek meaningful eye-level relationships and regularly publish their learnings and thought leadership at www.medium.com/senovovc.

About La Famiglia

La Famiglia is a European seed stage venture capital fund investing into B2B technology companies that enable or disrupt large industries. We are backed by a selection of world-leading entrepreneurs from various industries that provide precious early market access, impactful partnerships, and deep expertise for our portfolio companies. More than a regular venture fund, La Famiglia serves as a trusted access platform creating unique relationships between the old and the new world, enabling real differentiated leverage on capital.

About Wingman Ventures

Wingman Ventures is Switzerland’s leading pre-seed fund, backing founder teams building tech companies with the potential to become global market leaders. Wingman has a track-record of supporting exceptional founders in creating breakthrough companies and has the passionate conviction that the Swiss startup ecosystem is just now beginning to write its best success stories.

Contact details

Tim Grunow (Co-Founder & Managing Director of Archlet), tim.grunow@archlet.ch

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DE Version: Procurement Software Start-up Archlet sammelt 10 Millionen US-Dollar ein, um den Markt für strategische Einkaufssoftware aufzumischen

Zürich, 30. September 2021 – Die KI-basierte Sourcing-Plattform Archlet gibt heute den Abschluss einer Series-A-Runde in Höhe von 10-Millionen US-Dollar bekannt. Mit der Finanzierung soll das schnelle Wachstum des Start-ups weiter vorangetrieben werden. Die Investmentrunde wird von HV Capital angeführt, unter Beteiligung der Bestandsinvestoren Wingman Ventures, Senovo, La Famiglia und des Business Angels Matthias Hilpert.

Erst kürzlich wurde die Seed-Runde von Archlet bekannt gegeben. Das nun erfolgte neue Investment ist daher ein weiterer Beleg für die starke Performance und die hohen Erwartungen für zukünftiges Wachstum. Das zusätzliche Kapital soll es dem Start-up ermöglichen, die Produktentwicklung weiter voranzutreiben und in neue Märkte zu expandieren. Archlet wurde 2019 gegründet und hat seither Kunden wie PepsiCo, Emmi und die Deutsche Bahn gewonnen. Mit seiner innovativen und benutzerfreundlichen Sourcing-Software befreit Archlet die Einkäuferinnen und Einkäufer in Unternehmen von der unbeliebten Spreadsheet-Analyse.

“Die heutige Beschaffungssoftware steckt in der Vergangenheit fest. Excel ist noch immer das bevorzugte Werkzeug für die Erfassung und Analyse von Lieferantenangeboten. Doch die Zeiten ändern sich und der Markt für strategische Einkaufssoftware wird durch die steigende Nachfrage nach benutzerfreundlichen Produkten aufgerüttelt. Mit unserer Mission, ein beispielloses Nutzererlebnis zu bieten, bei dem jeder in der Abteilung mit demselben Tool zusammenarbeitet, sind wir bei Archlet hierbei führend”, sagt Tim Grunow, Mitgründer von Archlet.

Die Beschaffungsabteilungen stehen unter einem beispiellosen Druck: Sie müssen unterm Strich Einsparungen erzielen und gleichzeitig Risiken diversifizieren, die Nachhaltigkeit erhöhen und die Vielfalt der Lieferanten verbessern. Als Teil der neuen Normalität wird dieser Druck noch weiter zunehmen. Softwarelösungen für die Beschaffung, die in der Lage sind, diese Parameter zu berücksichtigen, sind jedoch zu kompliziert in der Anwendung und machen die Beschaffung zu einer langwierigen Erfahrung. Archlet ist die Ausnahme von der Regel, da es sich auf die Bereitstellung einer intuitiven Bedienoberfläche konzentriert und eine breite Akzeptanz der Nutzenden ermöglicht.

“Anders als herkömmliche Lösungen für die Beschaffungsanalyse, die sich hauptsächlich auf die einfache Preisminimierung fokussieren, ermöglicht es Archlet den Nutzenden, alle relevanten Daten, einschließlich Nicht-Kosten-Komponenten wie Nachhaltigkeit, Risiko oder Diversität, in ihre Entscheidungsfindung einzubeziehen. Wir glauben, dass Archlet eine führende Rolle bei der Optimierung von Einkaufsentscheidungen spielen kann”, sagt Felix Klühr, Partner bei HV Capital.

Seit 2019 hat die Beschaffungsplattform von Archlet kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen sowie Großunternehmen, die in verschiedenen Branchen in Europa und den USA tätig sind, dazu befähigt, Ausgaben in Höhe von mehr als 20 Milliarden US-Dollar zu optimieren. Die Kunden von Archlet berichten von zusätzlichen finanziellen Einsparungen von bis zu 15 Prozent im Vergleich zu früheren Beschaffungsaktivitäten – bei einer bis zu zehnfachen Verringerung der manuellen Tätigkeiten.

Kontaktangaben

Tim Grunow (Mitgründer & Managing Director of Archlet), tim.grunow@archlet.ch

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