CPO Rising’s Technology Round-Up series continues this week 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!
HighRadius Announces Team-Centric Accounts Payable Solution
HOUSTON — HighRadius, a provider of cloud-based autonomous software for the office of the CFO, announced the launch of Accounts Payable Automation, one of the industry’s first GenAI native solutions, to automate the entire payer-supplier payment process.
The company stated that AP teams have been working with traditional, one-way applications intended to reduce manual processes and save costs. However, these haven’t helped suppliers, who get limited payment visibility and must log in to multiple supplier portals. Supplier relationships have deteriorated, especially when AP processes have moved offshore.
With HighRadius’ GenAI-powered Accounts Payable Automation’s Supplier Connect product, suppliers will get immediate responses to their queries, including clear details on the status of their payments and guidelines for any actions required. The product will transform AP teams with improved supplier retention and reduce costs by eliminating manual, repetitive tasks.
According to Sashi Narahari, founder and chief executive officer of HighRadius, “In my conversations with over 100 global business service owners in the last 12 months, I kept hearing them say that AP processes have been neglected, still relying on outdated software and leaving the key stakeholders – suppliers and AP teams – dissatisfied,” he said. “Our goal is to use GenAI to enable lean AP teams to serve satisfied suppliers at low costs, without offshoring!”
Read the full announcement here.
Relish Raises $10M Series A Funding
CLEVELAND — Relish, a leading provider of solutions for businesses to optimize procurement systems and processes, announced it closed a $10M Series A funding round from Boston-based growth equity firm, Volition Capital.
The company states that Relish fills the gaps in existing enterprise software functionality. The company’s solutions are not meant to compete with or replace broader S2P suites, but instead to maximize the potential of currently deployed technology by protecting against third-party risk, validating supplier data, and automating invoicing.
According to Ryan Walicki, Relish founder & CEO, “We founded Relish with over 20 years of experience selling, implementing, using, and consulting on enterprise software. During this time, we saw a pattern of the same critical business challenges that required a significant amount of customization work that frequently fell outside the original scope of work,” he said.
“The need for custom solutions for most enterprise software users was very apparent and our mission with Relish is to help businesses to maximize their existing IT investments. This partnership with Volition Capital will enable us to achieve our goals for continued sustainable and profitable growth.”
Read the full announcement here.
Coupa Launches New AI-Driven Automations, Helping Businesses Drive Efficiencies
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Coupa, a leading AI-driven platform helping clients operate smarter and grow faster, launched new innovations that improve the buying experience and collaboration across the supply chain.
According to Fang Chang, chief product officer at Coupa, “For more than a decade, Coupa’s been leveraging AI to help its customers automate, increase efficiencies, and work smarter to improve business outcomes. In a world where every business is being tasked to do more with less, teams need intuitive, intelligent AI-driven solutions that have the power to transform their operations for the better,” he said.
“New AI innovations from Coupa will help businesses become more scalable and profitable. We are excited to unleash cutting-edge Generative AI solutions later this year, set to revolutionize your workflows within Coupa,” Chang added.
The company stated that Coupa helps businesses make more informed buying, sourcing, supply chain, and financial decisions to drive growth and better match supply and demand. New innovations help businesses:
- Increase payments automation. New AP automation features extract invoice data from scanned documents, instantly digitizing the invoice. New AI features also automatically assign tax code rules to invoices, further reducing the need for manual entry and shortening cycle and approval times.
- Optimize workflow processes. New purchase, supplier, contract, and sourcing event requests can be auto-assigned to users based on customized settings for each business. Teams have improved visibility and control over their approval queue, improving time management and freeing bandwidth to tackle more strategic projects.
- Create more profitable buying experiences. New Coupa App Marketplace integrations with Tonkean and Tropic take the friction out of the buying experience for employees. With intelligent intake orchestration, buying is intuitive. Employees are guided to make smarter decisions that can accelerate more profitable outcomes for the business.
Read the full announcement here.
Crisp Raises $50M in Series B Funding as CPG Brands Adopt Collaborative Commerce Approach to Supply Chain Management
NEW YORK — Crisp, a market leader in collaborative commerce, announced it has raised a total of $50M in new capital through a $20M Series B extension round and up to $30M in debt financing. Existing investors, including Blue Cloud Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Spring Capital and 3L, participated in the equity round. TriplePoint Capital LLC provided debt to refinance existing senior debt and to fund both operating activities and continued acquisitions.
According to Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Crisp, “Our strong growth is a testament to the measurable and significant value Crisp provides. We solve real problems and help CPG brands strengthen sales, marketing, and their relationships with retailers,” he said.
“Accessing all data within a single platform is empowering brands to implement a collaborative commerce approach, where advanced analysis is improving forecasting, pricing strategies, inventory management, and expansion plans.”
The company stated that since its inception in 2017, Crisp has evolved its platform to provide brands and distributors with the latest store and shelf-level data from leading retailers. This data provides visibility into actual inventory and sales down to the exact location of every item. These insights enable brands and retailers to optimize the manufacturing, distribution, merchandising and marketing of CPG products through every retail channel.
More than 700 CPG brands such as Mars, Hormel, Kraft Heinz, and Sanofi leverage the Crisp platform to strengthen relationships with retail partners by better supporting sales and inventory management across all channels.
Read the full announcement here.
Makersite Announces Strategic Partnership with WSP, Transforming Product Lifecycle Analysis and Supply Chain Management
STUTTGART, Germany — Makersite, a start-up pioneering a new approach to automated lifecycle analysis and supply chain management, announced its strategic partnership with WSP, a global leader in professional services. This collaboration marks a significant step forward in utilizing cutting-edge technology and expertise to revolutionize product lifecycle analysis and digital twin technology for manufacturers worldwide.
The company stated that Makersite’s innovative approach combines data from over 140 material, process, and supplier databases, creating highly accurate digital twins of products and their supply chains. The result is a comprehensive understanding of regulatory compliance, environmental impact, supply risk, and production costs — all integrated seamlessly into existing IT infrastructures.
According to Neil D’Souza, Makersite CEO, “The partnership with WSP represents a major milestone for Makersite. By combining our advanced digital twin technology with WSP’s expertise in EHS & ESG consulting, we are setting a new standard in the industry,” he said. “Our combined efforts will empower manufacturers to make better, faster decisions, transforming the way they manage their product lifecycles and supply chains.”
Read the full announcement here.
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