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Sievo raises $44 million to boost growth in U.S.

Richard Collings
Illustration of money rolled up and locked with a chain and padlock.  

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Sievo, a Finnish procurement analytics SaaS provider, secured $44 million in growth equity from Susquehanna Growth Equity, the investor tells Axios.

Why it's the BFD: Sievo says the sale of the minority stake is the first time in the company's 18-year history that it has raised money. It is timed to the urgent demand for analytics as retailers and CPG brands try to better understand their supply chains given recent inventory issues.

  • Sievo's founders and team retain a majority stake of the company, Susquehanna managing director Ben Weinberg says.

Details: Proceeds from the transaction will help expand Sievo's sales and marketing teams to accelerate growth in the U.S. (still a young market) as well as its home market of Europe, CEO Sammeli Sammalkorpi tells Richard.

  • Money will also be carved out for R&D, Sammalkorpi says.
  • The total addressable market for the procurement solution in Europe and United States is more than $1 billion, Sievo says.

Yes, and: The investment from Susquehanna could finance opportunistic acquisitions, something Sievo says it has never done before, but the focus is on organic growth.

By the numbers: While Sammalkorpi declined to comment on specific valuation or revenue numbers, he said Sievo generates sales in the eight-figure range and is growing 30% year over year.

How it works: Sievo's procurement analytics solution alerts retail and consumer products clients with daily updates on their supply chain, flagging potential pain points.

  • Its customers run the gamut from apparel brand Levi Strauss & Co. to CPG food group Kellogg Co. to brewer Carlsberg.
  • "The world is much less automated than we think it is," Weinberg says.
  • Before, supply chain audits might be conducted a couple of times a year, potentially allowing problems to fester for months before they can be addressed, incurring additional costs.
  • "There's increased demand for solutions like Sievo due to cost pressures and inflation," Sammalkorpi says, which in turn creates margin challenges.
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