Osborne Clarke advises the shareholders of Scoutbee on sale to Coupa

Osborne Clarke has advised the shareholders of the Würzburg AI start-up Scoutbee on the sale of the company to Coupa. Coupa, an AI platform for Total Spend Management, is expanding its supplier intelligence and discovery capabilities through the acquisition and strengthening its global network with over 10 million buyers and suppliers.

Founded in Würzburg in 2015 by Gregor Stühler and his co-founding team, Scoutbee connects buyers and suppliers via an AI-enabled platform that combines a comprehensive dataset, intelligent search and collaborative tools. The solution enables companies to identify new, suitable suppliers more quickly, simplify onboarding and make data-driven, profitable decisions. After three funding rounds totalling USD 76 million, Scoutbee expanded into Silicon Valley in 2019 and won customers such as Audi, Siemens, Airbus, Unilever and Bosch Rexroth.

The start-up has now been acquired by the US company Coupa, a platform for AI-enabled spend management. Existing Scoutbee customers are expected to benefit from the greater reach of the Coupa platform; conversely, Coupa users gain access to Scoutbee’s AI search engine and supplier intelligence.

As part of the integration, Scoutbee’s AI-based supplier discovery, data matching and network functions will be transferred to the Coupa platform to further increase transparency, efficiency and resilience in global procurement processes.

The Osborne Clarke team that advised the shareholders of Scoutbee, led by Robert Marx with Till-Manuel Saur as the responsible Partner, comprised Dr Paul Rhode, Benedikt Hülsmann, Giovanni Alexandrov (all Corporate / M&A), Florian Merkle, Ann-Kristin Lochmann, Patrick Seiler (all Tax), Adrian Schneider (IT) and Laura Valeske (Legal Project Management).