CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up Series returns today with fresh supply management technology news and updates covering a few recent major announcements. If you are a sourcing, procurement, or spend management solution provider and you are continually innovating the way that procurement and supply chain leaders and practitioners drive value, we’d love to hear from you. Please drop us a note at info at cporising dot com. Thanks, and enjoy!
Bernshteyn Departs Coupa as CEO and Chairman
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Coupa Software, a leader in business spend management (BSM), announced that Rob Bernshteyn has departed the company after more than 14 years as CEO and Chairman.
According to Bernshteyn, “It’s been the professional and personal privilege of my lifetime so far to lead this company and help to define Coupa’s community-driven strategy and vision. With Business Spend Management, my Coupa colleagues and I proudly galvanized an entirely new category of software innovation,” he said.
“We developed a community of leaders representing more than 3,500 organizations, along with an ecosystem of partners and suppliers that’s become the benchmark of the industry.”
The company announced Charles Goodman as Coupa’s interim CEO, effective immediately. Goodman is Coupa’s board chairman and has more than 30 years of experience building profitable enterprise software businesses.
Bernshteyn added, “As Charles steps into the interim CEO role, he brings extensive experience in guiding software companies through different stages of transition, leaving Coupa in good hands. With my departure, I leave forever grateful to the entire Coupa community and to all the Coupa colleagues I’ve had the pleasure to work with throughout these past 14 years.”
Read the full announcement here.
Hokodo and Citi Join Forces to Power Payments for Renewables Marketplace
LONDON — Hokodo, a leading provider of B2B payment solutions, and global financial services firm Citi announced their collaboration to power payments for Covento, a first-of-its-kind renewable energy marketplace.
The company stated that this strategic collaboration will deliver a best-in-class and frictionless B2B Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution that enables large global businesses to offer trade credit on e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. The e-commerce operation to benefit from this B2B payment solution is Covento, a B2B marketplace for renewable energy spare parts and tools that has been created by Vestas, the global leader in sustainable energy solutions.
According to Raphael Caruso, director of strategic projects and partnerships at Hokodo, “Hokodo’s proprietary underwriting engine and instant credit decisions, combined with Citi’s unmatched financing capability means we’re able to offer Covento customers the payment terms they desire, while suppliers receive payment upfront” he explains. “We’re super excited to support Covento as the marketplace expands into new geographies.”
Covento’s stated aim is to transform the cumbersome buying processes for spare parts within the renewable energy space, that are currently fragmented and lacking in transparency.
Read the full announcement here.
Keelvar Unveils Autonomous Sourcing Solution
CORK, Ireland — Keelvar, a global pioneer of intelligent sourcing optimization and automation solutions, launched the next-generation of its autonomous sourcing solution which, combined with its sourcing optimization platform, fuels a revolutionary approach to sourcing.
The announcement makes Keelvar the only provider in the market to offer an optimization and automation solution in one tool for transformed sourcing across the full spend lifecycle — from strategic to tail — with no training or sourcing experience required.
According to Alan Holland, founder & CEO of Keelvar, “Many procurement teams are under-resourced, yet have increasing workloads with faster turnaround times expected by internal stakeholders. Legacy sourcing applications are no longer fit for purpose as they are either too difficult to use, don’t work for all spend types or too basic to handle complexity,” he said.
“Keelvar Autonomous Sourcing solution extends our Sourcing Optimization platform, enabling businesses to make optimization available throughout the organization. Keelvar enables sourcing teams to scale sourcing excellence across the entire spend lifecycle to easily and efficiently manage large, complex sourcing events as well as simple, repetitive, ad-hoc tenders all from one easy-to-use tool, without increasing resources,” Holland added.
Read the full announcement here.
Everstream Raises $50M in Series B Funding to Accelerate Global Supply Chain Sustainability
SAN MARCOS, Calif. — Everstream Analytics, a global supply chain insights and risk analytics company, announced the close of a $50M Series B funding round co-led by Morgan Stanley Investment Management as part of its 1GT private equity platform and StepStone Group, with participation from existing investor Columbia Capital.
The company states that capital raised will fuel Everstream’s cutting-edge supply chain risk and performance insights. With a focus on informing strategic decisions across all supply chain functions, Everstream’s technology drives operational excellence, delivers strong financial returns, and builds lasting supply chain sustainability for the world’s most progressive and influential organizations.
According to Julie Gerdeman, CEO of Everstream, “2023 has already been momentous for Everstream, and we’re not even through the first half. This funding comes when we are doubling down on our product innovation and executing rapidly and decisively to advance supply chain sustainability, which is more critical now than ever,” she said.
“I’m grateful to our customers, investors, partners and team for their trust and collaboration as we champion this modern-day supply chain revolution.”
Read the full announcement here.
Procure IT to Deliver Data-driven Platform for IT Sourcing, Spend, Performance & Risk Management
CARROLLTON, Texas and LAS VEGAS — Randy Jeter, Andrew Laughter, William Hiatt, and Dylan Bouterse, the executives behind the launch of RapidScale and its sale to Cox Business in 2018, announced the merger of four technology advisory firms to form Procure IT, a game-changing data-driven IT procurement and management company.
The company states that Procure IT promises to combine people, processes, and software to create an industry-first platform for IT sourcing and spend, performance, and risk management.
According to Randy Jeter, Procure IT managing partner and former RapidScale CEO, “We believe the market demands more than another — albeit bigger — technology consulting firm,” he said. “Procure IT’s mission is to become an IT procurement and management company powered by a data-driven platform for predictive IT purchasing, cost control, performance, and risk management.”
Read the full announcement here.
