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!
KKR Invests in apexanalytix
NEW YORK & GREENSBORO, N.C., June 6, 2022 — KKR, a leading global investment firm, and apexanalytix® (“apex”), a leading provider of supply chain risk management software and services, announced that KKR has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in the company. apex’s largest shareholder, Carousel Capital, a private investment firm that invests in companies located in the Southeastern United States, will remain a significant minority owner in apex alongside KKR.
Apex serves over 250 Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies, protecting more than $8 trillion of annual spend across many of the world’s most complex supply chains. The company’s solutions help prevent and recover more than $8 billion for its customers every year.
According to Steve Yurko, CEO of apex, “We are pleased to welcome KKR as our largest shareholder and a tremendous new strategic partner to help us accelerate our mission of being the ultimate supplier information, risk and opportunity management solution for the world’s largest companies,” said Yurko. “KKR’s deep experience across industries, geographies and all facets of the global supply chain will position us to address our customers’ needs with even greater agility. We are grateful to the Carousel Capital team for playing a key role in our growth over the past eight years and we look forward to continuing this great relationship.”
Read the full announcement here.
Unit4 to Acquire Scanmarket
LONDON, UK, June 1, 2022 — Unit4, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for mid-market people-centric organizations, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Scanmarket, a global vendor of cloud source-to-contract software.
With Scanmarket, a privately-held company founded in 1999 and headquartered in Denmark, Unit4 will now be able to provide organizations with a unified source-to-pay journey, building on its existing ERP and procure-to-pay (P2P) offerings.
According to Mike Ettling, CEO for Unit4, “We are delighted to have added Scanmarket to the Unit4 portfolio. Their market-leading global strategic procurement capabilities and cloud-based solutions are trusted by 324 customers, across more than 85 countries…,” said Ettling. “As well as a great technology fit, both organizations are culturally similar in that we have developed our solutions with users and people at the center of what we do, so we are excited to welcome the Scanmarket team to Unit4.”
Read the full announcement here.
EcoVadis Secures $500M Investment
NEW YORK & PARIS, June 14, 2022 — EcoVadis, a leading provider of globally trusted business sustainability ratings, announced it has raised $500M with plans to accelerate its vision of influencing every business decision with sustainability intelligence, becoming a sustainability impact unicorn.
The global investment round — the largest equity fundraising for a sustainability data SaaS company to date — brings EcoVadis’ total capital raised to over $725M and was led by Astorg and BeyondNetZero, General Atlantic’s climate investing venture, with participation from Singapore-based GIC and Princeville Capital’s Climate Technology Fund.
According to Frédéric Trinel, co-founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis, “This investment is validation of EcoVadis’ model for scaling impact across global value chains, despite the pandemic, geopolitical or financial headwinds,” he said. “We continue to experience record demand as more companies are empowered to integrate the planet and society into their business operations. We expect this investment to enable us to build on our traction to meet companies — including SMEs and private companies — at any stage of their sustainability journey, and collaboratively drive improvement in practices and impact at scale.”
Read the full announcement here.
Esker Owns Majority Stake in MarketDojo
UK, Bristol, June 9, 2022 — Market Dojo, a UK-based SaaS procurement software provider, announced that Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, has completed the 50.1% acquisition of the shares and voting rights in Market Dojo effective June 2022, and for the remainder of Market Dojo shares to be acquired after a period of four years.
Per the press release, as part of the acquisition, Market Dojo’s flagship module, Sourcing Dojo, enables Esker to bring e-sourcing into its platform proposition. This opens the door to a rich source-to-pay offering for both organizations and their customers. Market Dojo’s supplier onboarding and contract management modules will also serve as a value-add to Esker’s customer base. While Market Dojo will continue to operate as its own business unit, synchronization of product plans between the two organizations will occur.
According to Alun Rafique, co-founder and CEO of Market Dojo, “With Esker’s backing, we can now accelerate our growth plans to enhance our products and address international markets. Thus, helping more organizations that want to create efficiency, enhance their supplier engagement, minimize risks and reduce costs within the sourcing of goods and services. Market Dojo’s solutions combined with Esker’s solutions will create an impressive source-to-pay platform.”
Read the full announcement here.
Coupa Software Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results
SAN MATEO, Calif., June 6, 2022 — Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2022. The company reported record quarterly revenues of $196 million (representing 18% year-over-year growth) as well as record quarterly subscription revenues of $178 million (representing 27% year-over-year growth).
According to Rob Bernshteyn, chairman and chief executive officer at Coupa, “We began the fiscal year strong by delivering record quarterly total revenue and subscription revenue, and also yielding over 20% operating cash flow and adjusted free cash flow margins,” said Bernshteyn. “Company leaders continue to recognize the importance and value of back-office transformation. Our comprehensive platform acts as a single source of truth to provide our customers with the data and insights necessary to maximize every dollar of business spend.”
Per the press release, the following is a sample of the business highlights from the first fiscal quarter:
- Launched new innovations to help companies modernize back-office functions and accelerate ESG programs, including new solutions for Scope 3 emissions tracking, bid price insights, and supply chain financing.
- Achieved FedRAMP Moderate authorization to help government agencies maximize the impact of every dollar they spend.
- Hosted its annual BSM community conference Inspire, in both North America and EMEA, welcoming a record number of attendees and awarding its Spendsetters to recognize leaders revolutionizing BSM. Awarded companies include ADM, AstraZeneca, Farfetch, Grupo Bafar, Mars Vet Health, Mastercard, Primetals, REI, Saga, Saint-Gobain, Sonoco, Tearfund, World Vision, and Zurich.
Read the full announcement here.
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