Why Salesforce And Workday Joined The $33 Million Raise For A Procurement Software Startup

Other corporations with similar traits to Workday and Salesforce attempted to join the round as well, the startup and its new lead investor both say, with Scout RFP electing to work with the companies led by billionaires Aneel Bhusri and Marc Benioff. Scout RFP got its start when Yakubovich and cofounders Stan Garber, Andrew Durlak and Chris Crane recognized that while procurement software could reach considerable scale—Coupa Software is valued at about $4 billion on the public markets today, and SAP paid $4.3 billion for Ariba in 2012—the incumbent players hadnt focused on the sourcing side of the procurement process, the finding and approving of suppliers, but rather on the transactional side. One reason Scale Venture Partners was so interested in investing: Scout RFP is the latest startup to apply consumer-app-style experiences to a neglected area of back office software. Taking procurement offices off Microsoft Word and Powerpoint to track suppliers, Niehenke says, can make the products purchased actually get used—and thus much more likely to be repurchased or expanded on in the future. The startup is confident it would survive a more bearish market as its software integrates with incumbents in the space, too, meaning companies can run it alongside Ariba, Coupa and Oracle and increase their use gradually over time.