In this second part of our segmentation analysis of the 215 Startups that were included in The Supply Chain Management Startups Handbook, we take a closer look at funding in the respective sub segments
Last month we pointed out that almost 30% of all mentions of segments in our report were linked to transparency related topics like Visibility, Traceability and Risk Management and more than half of the registered startups mentioned at least on of these sub segments as relevant for their company. To no big surprise that market trend towards more transparency which is also a key condition for sustainability also reflected in the total funding associated with the respective subsegments.
However, when looking at median funding per company in the respective subsegments, the picture is slightly different: the highest median funding (4m USD) is scored by Freight & Shipping followed by Last Mile Delivery, Planning and Robotis (each 2.5m USD) on a shared second place. What has to be taken into consideration when interpreting the data is that especially funding and absolute amounts are skewed towards older companies, beeing around for much longer and targeting not necessarily today’s most important trends and issues.
While operational excellence and economically sustainable Supply Chains will still stay a relevant topic in an industry with still lots of digitalisation potential, our predicition is that higher percentages of funded companies in transparency related topics will also lead to comparably higher absolute and median funding amounts in these subsegements. Transparency and Sustainability are however not ends in themselves. They will also add new dimensions into classic topics of operational excellence like technolocially enhanced procurement or planning processes. Future procurement software solutions will not only focus on efficient processes but also take carbon emissions, labour conditions and other factors into consideration making these startups the companies of the future that target both sustainability and operational excellence related companies.
