Israeli startup Approved, which developed a platform that optimizes and improves the procurement process, raised $5 million in a Seed funding round led by Israeli VC Aleph, with a few Angel investors also participating in the round.
Optimizing and modernizing the procurement process
Approve developed a SaaS-based system for major organizations, providing full support during the procurement process (the process of acquiring a company), starting from the initial meetings to the final payment. Approve’s system enables financial and procurement teams a way to monitor and manage the entire process, as well as cutting the time invested in the usually prolonged process of acquiring a company.
As a bonus, the system automates the procurement process and creates required approvals based on different parameters - like company budget, organizational charts, and info about the various suppliers. The company claims that the automation engine can be adapted to the company, management, and procurement teams’ needs, making the process much more efficient, saving time and money.
Approve CEO and co-founder Bar Winkler, explained in a talk with Geektime that the company’s system “replaces the Excell sheets and long email chain process with a system that integrates into an organization’s ERP, budget, and SSO networks.” And what about competitors in the market? Winkler says that the system optimizes “processes that are experiencing innovative momentum in organizations”, but doesn’t offer any insight to what makes Approve’s system stand out from the rest.
Winkler also noted regarding the funding round that “procurement processes suffer from communication breakdowns, with the deployment of many different tools digging for inaccessible data. These cause chaos to run the process, rather than being in control, leading to mistakes and missed opportunities. Approve enables modern companies to drop the old-fashioned ways based on endless emails, text messages, and other time-consuming tasks, and transition into a system that automates the process, while supporting thousands of employees and suppliers.”
Approve was founded in 2019 by Winkler, Shlomy Amsalem, and Amit Mittelman. The company employs a team of 20 that is split between offices in Tel Aviv and San Francisco. Prior to this latest Seed investment, the company scored a $300k Pre-Seed investment. According to Winkler, the company was evaluated between $15-$20 million, based on this last funding round. Furthermore, the company notes that the newly acquired finances will be invested in further product development, as well as expanding U.S. operations and providing a comprehensive support structure for customers.
