akirolabs Raises $5M in Seed Funding to Revolutionize Strategic Procurement

January 29, 2024

• Founded in 2021, Berlin-based akirolabs empowers procurement organisations to unlock 4-5x higher sustainable business value beyond traditional cost savings.
• The funding round was led by HTGF, OTB Ventures and D11Z. Ventures and strengthened by angel investments from industry leaders Fredrick Spalcke, Heiko Schwarz, Markus Ehrle, and Detlef Schultz.
• The funds will be used to evolve akirolabs SaaS product and enhance its AI capabilities, as well as to further scale customer growth and business operations.

Berlin, January 29, 2024 – akirolabs, a Berlin-based ProcureTech startup, enabling enterprises worldwide to augment strategic procurement processes, announced that it has raised $5M in its recent seed funding round.

Investors in this round included HTGF, OTB Ventures, D11Z. Ventures, and Switzerland’s Serpentine Ventures, alongside angel investments from industry leaders such as Fredrick Spalcke (ex-CPO of Phillips & Huawei), Heiko Schwarz (CEO of riskmethods), Markus Ehrle (VP and General Manager EMEA at ServiceNow), and Detlef Schultz (former CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company).

Notably, akirolabs has also appointed Jens Rassloff as the Chairman of the Advisory Board. Jens holds similar roles at Coparion, Parloa, and d.velop and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the tech industry, specifically in the areas of growth, innovation, and investment strategies.

akirolabs’ large corporate customers across the globe and across various industries, as well as internationally leading analysts, appreciate and recognize akirolabs’ innovation power and uniqueness. The startup’s recognitions include Gartner “Cool Vendor”, Gartner’s “Hype Cycle Sample Vendor”, “IDC Innovator 2023”, Spend Matters “Future 5”, and ProcureTech’s “Top 100 Pioneers”.

akirolabs highlights that while digitalization in procurement in the past was primarily focused on operational and tactical solutions for efficiency and savings, industry benchmarks indicate a much higher value potential in strategic procurement. This potential is often untapped due to capability gaps. Also, the current macroeconomic challenges and recent black swan events have amplified and accelerated the need for more strategic procurement. To address this challenge, akirolabs offers an AI-powered strategic procurement SaaS solution, enabling its customers to unlock and achieve 4-5 times higher value from procurement, – beyond savings.

We’re very grateful for the trust placed into akirolabs in this funding round. It emphasizes the imperative of advanced strategic procurement software in today’s economic environment. In these challenging times, akirolabs does not just facilitate savings on price. Much more, our solution delivers tangible improvements in total cost and supply chain resilience, sustainability and agility, strengthening the competitiveness of our customers.

Michael Pleuger, CEO of akirolabs

What you have created is significant… there is no doubt in my mind that this is a breakthrough innovation. akirolabs is on a trajectory to eliminate much of the category management function as we know it. today.

Elouise Epstein, Kearney Partner & best-seeling author on Digital Procurement

We are convinced that akirolabs builds an international category leader in strategic procurement and we are looking forward supporting the team on its path.

Christian Arndt, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF

With the advent of LLMs, there is an opportunity to transform the strategic aspects of procurement decision-making. Founding teams that combine a deep domain expertise with technical prowess will thrive in this environment. akirolabs fits the bill and we are excited to support them.

Mateusz Lukasik, Investment Director at OTB Ventures

Adding value beyond cost savings, akirolabs will set new standards in strategic procurement management.

Thomas R. Villinger, Managing Director at D11Z Ventures

About akirolabs
akirolabs, founded in 2021 by Michael Pleuger, Detlef Schultz, Christoph Flöthmann, and Tim Ergenzinger, develops and provides an AI powered SaaS platform for collaborative strategic procurement. akirolabs is based upon a world-class and industry proven strategic procurement process, methodology and toolkit, embedded into an intuitive cross-functional collaboration workflow and enriched with all relevant internal and external business insight. akirolabs’ unique approach delivers “Procurement Strategies with Value & Purpose” and a significantly broader and 4-5 times higher value contribution than traditional souring solutions.

Press Contact:
akirolabs GmbH
Greifswalder Str. 208
10405 Berlin
hello@akirolabs.com
Tel:+49 30 754 384 66

About High-Tech Gründerfonds   
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported more than 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has about 1.4 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected about 5 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 170 companies.  
Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries. 

Media contact 
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de