Prewave raises $67.5m Series B to leverage AI to help businesses manage unprecedented supply chain challenges and deliver the world’sfirst supply chain superintelligence platform
● New regulations are significantly increasing supply chain reporting and compliance requirements for businesses, amid growing global uncertainty
● Prewave's AI driven supply chain risk intelligence platform is used bycustomers including Volkswagen, Volvo, Ferrari and Dr Oetker, tominimize supply chain risk and build resilient operations despite ever-growingcomplexity in supply chains
● This new funding will fuel global expansion and support further productR&D, on the back of rapid growth in Europe and threefold increase inrevenue in 2023
Vienna, Austria, 25th June 2024 - Prewave,the AI-enabled sustainability, risk and compliance platform, has raised $67.5min its Series B funding round, led by Hedosophia, with participation from existing investors Creandum, Ventech, Kompas, Speedinvest and Working Capital Fund. The new funding will beused to drive Prewave’s next phase of global growth and to support further product R&D on its proprietary AI technology to deliver the world’s only supply chain superintelligence platform.
Supply chain disruptions - from natural disasters to labor issues - have long posed significant operational challenges for businesses. Adding to this, growing geopolitical instability, workforce shortages and inflationary pressures have dramatically heightened supply chain risk in recent years, with disruptions estimated to cost businesses 6-10% of their annual revenue.
On top of that, businesses in Europe and across the world face a wave of new sustainability and supply chain regulations, each imposing complex reporting and compliance requirements, alongwith potentially crippling penalties for breaches:
● The EU’s Deforestation Regulation(EUDR), effective as of 2025, will introduce strenuous reporting requirements on businesses trading commodities or products usually related to deforestation from the EU.
● The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) will usher in a substantial set of new rules that aim to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behavior in companies’ operations and across their global value chains.
● At a national level, the Conflict Minerals Provision Dodd Frank (US), Loi de Vigilance (France),Lieferkettengesetz (Germany), and VSoTr (Switzerland) are also further compounding regulatory challenges.
Prewave solves this problem by harnessing the power of AI to deliver supply chain superintelligence that can transform businesses’ supply chains to become more transparent, compliant and resilient.
Prewave stands as the world’s only future-ready sustainability, risk and compliance platform, capable of identifying and helping businesses manage 140 risk types on a global scale. This includes issues affecting resilience and causing disruption (natural disasters, financial stress, cyber risks, accidents and legal issues), risks around sustainability and ESG, and compliance with a growing number of national and international regulations.
Built on a decade of R&D and data training, Prewave’s academic-bred AI engine accurately identifies risk signals from vast and fragmented data sets made up of news and social media contentacross 400+ languages; company certifications and annual reports; government and NGO data feeds; and sanction and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) lists.
Prewave then generates real-time predictive and reactive alerts, along with recommended actions for customers’ supply chains, risky suppliers, and sub-tier networks. By integrating all supply chain risk use cases and enabling effective end-to-end risk management throughout the lifecycle (including identification, tier-n mapping, prioritization, mitigation, and reporting and control), Prewave reduces businesses’ workload by a factor of 40 compared to manual, questionnaire-based compliance approaches.
Prewave has expanded rapidly on the back of strong demand across Europe, achieving 3x annual revenue growth in 2023. Over200 companies, including Volkswagen, Volvo, Ferrari and Dr Oetker, already relyon Prewave to remain compliant and enhance the resilience and sustainability oftheir supply chains.
Commenting,Harald Nitschinger, Co-founder and Managing Director at Prewave, said:
“We founded Prewave because we are convinced that dataand AI can play a major role in making supply chains more transparent,resilient and sustainable - and help to power the vital currents of globaleconomic progress. We believe that in the face of rapidly acceleratingregulatory complexity, businesses shouldn’t be aiming to take a tick-boxapproach, but to use regulatory compliance as a vehicle to become moreresilient.
“We’ve seen strong demand from leading European brandswho have recognised that Prewave can help them protect their reputation, improve performance and increase profitability. This funding will now allow usto accelerate our global expansion, with the US market our top priority forgrowth.”
Commenting,Stephan Wirries, General Partner at Ventech:
"When we initially invested in Prewave during its seed round amid the first COVID-19 lock downs, it was evident how Lisa and Harald's vision, combined with their AI-powered solutions, would address the evolving supply chain needs in increasingly volatile times. Since then, Prewave has seen rapid growth in every key metric and expanded its customer base globally. As one of their very first investors, we are delighted to continue our support in Prewave as they continue this impressive trajectory."
About Prewave
Prewave is the future-ready sustainability,risk and compliance platform. Its best-in-class AI technology delivers an intelligent solution to businesses’ pressing supply chain challenges. Over 200 global companies including Volkswagen, Volvo, Ferrari and Dr Oetker use Prewave to make their supply chains compliant and increase their overall resilience and sustainability. Founded in 2017, Prewave’s investors include Hedosophia, Creandum, Ventech, Kompas, Speedinvest, Working Capital Fund, seed + speed Ventures, Segnalita Ventures, xista Ventures and aws Gründerfonds. For more information,visit www.prewave.com.
About Ventech
Ventech is a global early-stage venture capital firmwith a strong digital focus. Founded in 1998, Ventech backs the most innovativeand visionary tech entrepreneurs with a global ambition. With its dualstructure platform, Ventech has dedicated funds for Europe (Paris, Munich,Berlin, Helsinki and Stockholm) and Asia(Shanghai and Hong Kong).
Since its inception, Ventech has raised over 900m€, and has realized over 220 investments, (including Vestiaire Collective, Prewave, Ogury, The Customization Group, Veo, Reveal, and Speexx) and over 90 exits (Believe (BLV.PA), Arteris (NSDQ: AIP), Withings (acquired by Nokia), and Fintecsystems (acquired by Tink)).
For more information, visit www.ventechvc.com
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