Tacto secures 50 million euros for the development of future-proof supply chains in the SME sector

Munich, December 12, 2023 - Tacto, the AI-based operating system for future-proof supply chains in the SME sector, has received 50 million euros from leading investors Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Existing shareholders Visionaries Club, Cherry Ventures and UVC Partners are also participating in the financing round.

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André Petry (CEO & Co-Founder, Tacto): "Increasing regulation and disruptions in supply chains pose major challenges for our economic backbone, the industrial SME sector: The cost base is rising, material supply is at risk and the business outlook is uncertain. Tacto is developing a software solution for future-proof supply chains for and together with SMEs in response to the challenges of today and tomorrow. The financing round is a vote of confidence in our product, our team and our customers. The additional capital will allow us to further invest in our technology to help our customers remain competitive amidst ever-increasing supply chain complexity."

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Purchasing is the key to solving supply chain problems, but affected companies often lack the right tools. Around 50% of the costs of an average industrial company are incurred when purchasing production materials. The complexity of managing hundreds of production-critical suppliers and tens of thousands of materials is enormous. Due to the lack of suitable tools, the majority of purchasing organizations in medium-sized companies still rely on manual processes and decentralized, error-prone Excel spreadsheets. The increasing challenges in supply chains in recent years, such as wars, climate change, regulation and inflation, have made it clear that European industry must future-proof its supply chains in order to remain competitive.

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As an operating system for future-proof supply chains, Tacto is the answer for medium-sized industrial companies. The AI-based software enables strategic supplier management, straightforward handling of compliance with ESG regulations and efficient and sustainable material purchasing at optimized conditions. Manual supplier processes can be intelligently automated. For example, customers are enabled to implement the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) in a legally compliant manner and without additional personnel costs. At the same time, Tacto's AI can identify cost savings of up to 10% of the purchasing volume by continuously evaluating all data along the supply chain (e.g. cost drivers such as raw material and energy prices).

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Matthias Schlotter (Purchasing Manager, Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen): "Tacto is our partner for the digitalization of purchasing, from the automation of supplier management to negotiation support for cost savings. Without Tacto, we would have to hire several additional people in times of skills shortages to counter disruptions and comply with increasing regulation. With Tacto, we can focus on value-adding topics. For example, we can analyze all supplier data and cost drivers in real time to prepare for a supplier visit at any time at the touch of a button, resulting in significant time and cost savings."

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Tacto's customer portfolio is made up of medium-sized industrial companies from all sectors that manufacture a diverse range of physical products from board games to cleaning agents and tunnel boring machines. They manage several billion euros in purchasing volume and hundreds of thousands of suppliers through Tacto. The customer-oriented approach based on measurable time and cost benefits in purchasing is also reflected in customer loyalty, as not a single customer has ever terminated their cooperation with Tacto. This convinced leading global investors, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, that Tacto is the solution for future-proof supply chains in the SME sector. Both investors share the strategy of investing in leading companies at an early stage and helping to build them up over the long term.

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Luciana Lixandru (Partner, Sequoia Capital): "With unprecedented pressure on global supply chains, industrial companies are realizing that their suppliers are as strategically important as their customers. After closely analyzing the procurement challenges faced by mid-sized industrial companies over the past few years, we realized that future-proofing supply chains is one of the most pressing issues of our time and Tacto is developing a real technological answer. When we met André and the team, we knew that Tacto would be the company that would revolutionize procurement for these companies. Germany is the ideal place to start because of its strong SME sector."

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Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (Partner, Index Ventures): "Supply chains have been heavily burdened by a wide variety of macroeconomic and regulatory challenges and the increasing complexity of globally networked production. Many companies are struggling to manage everything at the same time, especially given the growing shortage of skilled labor. Tacto's product uses AI to help companies optimize the multitude of supplier relationships and materials, reducing both complexity and cost. We look forward to working with André, Johannes, Nico and their team to respond to the increasing demand."

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The newly acquired capital will be used to accelerate product development and invest significantly in AI. The aim is to help customers automate all manual supplier and compliance processes, proactively achieve savings by optimizing purchasing costs and reduce emissions through sustainable procurement. Tacto intends to further expand its strong customer base in the industrial SME sector in order to create future-proof supply chains together with its customers.

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About Tacto

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Tacto develops an intuitive, data-driven and automated solution for building future-proof supply chains in medium-sized industrial companies. The AI-based software provides customers with a transparent overview of their procurement activities, algorithmically highlights risks and savings potential along the supply chain and automates transactional processes in procurement and supplier management in order to focus on the essentials. The company was founded in 2020 by André Petry, Nico Bentenrieder and Johannes Groll. The product was developed in a co-innovation with medium-sized industrial companies. More than 40 people with expertise in the development of AI software and experience in purchasing now work at Tacto.

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About Sequoia Capital

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Sequoia supports today's most ambitious founders in building unique companies from idea to IPO and beyond. Our goal is to be the first partner of tomorrow's most promising and long-term successful companies. We partner with some exceptional companies every year and do everything we can to provide them with the support they need at every stage of their business development. Our expertise comes from 50 years of working with outstanding founders like Steve Jobs and Larry Page. In total, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 25% of NASDAQ's total value. Since our inception, we have made the majority of our investments on behalf of non-profit organizations and schools such as the Ford Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and Oxford University. This means that most of our returns go to these important causes.

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About Index Ventures

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Index Ventures works with outstanding founders from seed to IPO to turn disruptive ideas into global companies that have a long-term and positive impact on the world around us. Index supports companies with an experienced team of investors, strategists and an extensive global network with three decades of venture capital experience. As a global fund firmly anchored on both sides of the Atlantic, Index works as one integrated team from San Francisco to New York and from London to Tel Aviv. With a global mindset and international team, Index believes that founders and startups can come from anywhere and become successful. When founders are successful, they make a significant contribution to Index's investors, which are primarily non-profit foundations in the fields of education, health and research as well as other impact-oriented organizations.

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About the founders and the founding history

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The three founders, André Petry (CEO), Johannes Groll (CPO) and Nico Bentenrieder (CTO), met during their studies at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and studied together at UC Berkeley. All of the founders shared the conviction that cooperation between tech start-ups and the 'Mittelstand' represents an enormous opportunity for Europe as an industrial power. When industrial companies faced an existential threat with the collapse of supply chains due to the Corona pandemic, Tacto was founded to provide a technological solution aimed at future-proofing supply chains and keeping production running. André Petry, CEO, has experience in supporting industrial organizations in transformation, especially procurement, with AI at BCG and appliedAI. Johannes Groll, CPO, has a background in research in AI at TUM as well as experience in optimizing business-critical processes in industry at Palantir. Nico Bentenrieder, CTO, has a background in research & development and purchasing at BMW.

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About Visionaries Club

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Visionaries Club is a leading European venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments, with offices in London and Berlin. The Visionaries LP base brings together the strongest network of leading unicorn founders and family entrepreneurs, such as the founders of UiPath, Miro, Wolt, Flixbus, Supercell, Zalando, Mollie, Spotify, Personio, Adyen, HelloFresh, as well as dynasties such as Swarovski, Miele, Mittal, Haniel, Stihl, Siemens, and sports personalities active in VC, such as Mario Götze (soccer world champion) or Nico Rosberg (Formula 1 world champion). With its entrepreneurial LP base and B2B investment focus, Visionaries bridges the information asymmetry between "what is possible in the technology startup sector" and "what is actually needed in the industrial sector".

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About Cherry Ventures

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Cherry Ventures is a leading European early-stage venture capital firm, founded by entrepreneurs with years of experience in scaling startups such as Zalando and Spotify. The Cherry team invests in Europe's boldest founders, usually as the first institutional investor, and supports them with dedicated internal functions on topics ranging from market entry strategy to company scaling. Cherry Ventures has invested in over 100 seed-stage startups across Europe, including now world-renowned companies such as FlixBus, Auto1 Group, Flaschenpost, Moss, The Exploration Company, Forto, SellerX and Juni. With offices in Berlin, London and Stockholm, Cherry Ventures' investment focus spans various industries and regions across Europe.

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About UVC Partners

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UVC Partners is a leading early-stage venture capital firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests in European B2B tech start-ups from pre-seed to Series A stage. With approximately €400 million in assets under management, UVC Partners typically invests between €500,000 and €10 million as an initial ticket and up to €30 million per company. The portfolio includes leading companies in the fields of deep tech, climate tech, hardware and software as well as mobility. As an independent partner of UnternehmerTUM, Europe's largest innovation and startup center, UVC Partners has access to proprietary deal flow, an industrial network of more than 1,000 companies and access to talent from Europe's leading technical university. Their investments include Flix, Vimcar, planqc, Tanso, Isar Aerospace, TWAICE, DeepDrive, STABL and many more. They all benefit from the team's extensive investment and exit experience, ability to build sustainable industry leaders and passion for developing the game changers of tomorrow.

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Tacto's financing round in the media:
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Handelsblatt: Easier than Excel: Tacto wants to use AI to secure the supply chains of SMEs‍

Business Insider: Munich startup Tacto raises 50 million from Sequoia and Index

Börsen-Zeitung: Munich start-up Tacto convinces renowned investors

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