AI in procurement — negotiate with a robot.

3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 408.

Zip for smart procurement.

Zip does automation of workflows and processes in procurement. Automation here meaning orchestrating between systems and information sources e.g. take an invoice, check match with contract terms or offers, PO number, and then paying the invoice. For company sizes ranging from startup to enterprise. Raised a $190m Series D funding round in October, totalling to $371m funding. Opinion: Focus on enterprise customers explains the large funding. Zip AI for more complicated automations and an assistant that guides through procurement processes. Like “I want to buy X from vendor Y for $Z”, the assistant then guides through the purchase request.

Efficiency gains are massive in enterprises with lengthy complicated procurement processes!

Najar — procurement automation and contract optimisation.

Najar is procurement automation and expense optimisation. Automation from receiving invoices, to checking them, also collaborative approval room for teams to work on approval processes. Najar was called Welii until mid October, then €15m funding round and rebranding. Opinion: Focus on companies with high software and technology expenses. Even with a feature for that, checking if there is potential for savings and re-negotiations of SaaS contracts.

Very cool website, kinda abstract and space theme!

Pactum — the “negotiation suite”.

Pactum calls itself a “negotiation suite”, for automated negotiation of supplier contracts. Guidelines and rules are set before, like acceptance thresholds and limits. The AI then takes over the negotiation with the supplier. Based in Mountain View and $55m funding. Opinion: Great case, automatically optimising contract terms. Pactum says there are huge cost savings e.g. by re-negotiating payment dates and conditions.

Small savings by optimising contract terms, but at scale, negotiating many contracts.