akirolabs provides a SaaS solution that allows companies to plan their procurement strategy through collaboration across different functionalities, including AI-based market intelligence and data insights.
akirolabs works on digitalizing a part of the procurement process, which has not been digitalized properly, yet. While operational and tactical procurement, e. g. the order management and tendering and negotiating have been digitalized to a large degree, the strategic decision making process has not been. This is where the Berlin based startup comes in.
The company offers an AI driven, enterprise-wide collaboration platform for strategic procurement. It is embedding an industry-proven, world-class toolkit into an intuitive workflow, involving all relevant stakeholders, and enriching the process with all relevant internal and external information.
Why did we invest in akirolabs? The startup, recently recognized as Gartner© Cool Vendor™, offers a full strategic toolkit that goes beyond traditional supplier and category, including spend, contract, cost drivers, PESTLE, Kraljic, P5F, SWOT, value levers, value tracking etc. It enables cross-functional and cross-department collaboration and has a strong focus on delivering the overarching business strategy. Finally, the solution shows a deep integration with other procurement software to ingest data, and generate AI-based market intelligence and procurement insights.
The global supply chain management software market is expected to grow from USD 27.2bn in 2022 to USD 45.4bn in 2026 at a CAGR of 13.6%. With the increasing complexity of global supply chain networks and the technology advancements, we expect a growing demand for strategic planning solutions like akirolabs. Its key customer group (large enterprises) accounts for 63.2% of the supply chain management software market. Furthermore, its industry- and geographic-agnostic approach allows the company to capture the biggest possible market share.
The four founders have deep knowledge of the procurement business. Take Detlef Schultz, for example: He is one of the most recognized procurement executives globally. Thus he was recognized with the highly prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by Procurement Leaders. Co-Founder Michael Pleuger was a Senior Partner at KPMG and Roland Berger before and supported Schultz in his role as the Chairman of the board of directors of the Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC). Tim Ergenzinger and Christoph Flöthmann have worked with Pleuger in consulting roles for years.
