Scout, which offers a cloud-based solution for filling out requests for proposals, has raised $2.75 million in seed funding. New Enterprise Associates led the funding, with participation from Google Ventures, Zapis Capital and angel investors, including Techammer and Tim O’Shaughnessy. As part of the seed funding, Chetan Puttagunta, a partner at NEA, has joined the board of the Cleveland,Ohio-based company.
PRESS RELEASE
Scout RFP™ secures $2.75MM in funding from NEA, Google Ventures, and Zapis Capital to aid its mission of making RFPs painless
Cleveland, Ohio (January 27, 2015) — Scout RFP, a cloud-based sourcing platform, today announced that the company raised $2.75 million in seed financing led by leading venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Google Ventures and Zapis Capital, and angel investors including Techammer & Tim O’Shaughnessy. The funding will be used to grow the company’s engineering team and scale the product for their enterprise customers. Chetan Puttagunta, Partner at NEA, will join Scout RPF’s board of directors.
Scout RFP was built to help enterprises run more efficient sourcing events by taking care of the many manual tasks associated with requests for proposals (RFPs), inviting of suppliers to participate in bidding and the subsequent collection of responses. This complex process includes ensuring vendors fill forms out correctly, Q&A management, bid collection, bid compilation, attachment/file management, compliance management, and numerous other tasks that are frequently tedious and time-intensive.
Company buyers can launch projects in the Scout tool within minutes of signing up since Scout’s platform does not require installation or training. Additionally, bid setup is incorporated into a simple one-page design, resulting in navigational ease for users.
Review and analysis becomes considerably easier since data is centralized and buyers can automatically see a side-by-side comparison. The Scout tool can be used by a single buyer or by teams with up to 1000+ users. The system’s audit trail logs every user’s involvement during a sourcing event and ensures the data is preserved for the future.
“We have been on both sides of numerous RFPs/RFIs/RFQs and can safely say that the current process is heavily managed via email, Excel, Word, and phone,” said Stan Garber, President & Co-founder of Scout RFP. “Before we decided to build this product, we spent six months talking to hundreds of purchasing professionals to validate their pain points. Once we confirmed our frustration was also felt by the industry at large, we got busy developing Scout.”
“The Scout team has developed a unique solution that simplifies the complexities of running sourcing events for enterprises with an incredibility easy to use interface,” said Chetan Puttagunta, Partner at NEA. “We are excited at the opportunity to partner with the team as they transform the massive enterprise sourcing space.”
About Scout RFP
Scout RFP is a cloud-based sourcing platform that makes the purchasing process painless by automating tasks and providing a single comprehensive view of all sourcing events. Scout was founded in 2013 after the co-founders recognized a growing frustration with managing RFP and buying events throughout organizations. The Scout solution allows medium to large enterprises to securely track, analyze, and communicate throughout the bidding process with a beautifully designed and easy-to-use interface. Scout is based in Cleveland, OH and San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit: www.scoutrfp.com
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record of successful investing includes more than 195 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions since its founding in 1977. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.
