Ann Arbor’s LLamasoft Acquired by California Company for $1.5B

Ann Arbor supply chain design and planning firm LLamasoft has been acquired by a California business spend management company for $1.5 billion.
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Llamasoft computer
Ann Arbor’s LLamasoft has been acquired by a California business spend management company for $1.5 billion. // Image courtesy of LLamasoft

Ann Arbor supply chain design and planning firm LLamasoft has been acquired by a California business spend management company for $1.5 billion.

The acquisition will strengthen San Mateo, Calif.-based Coupa Software’s supply chain capabilities, enabling clients to drive greater value through business spend management, according to the company.

LLamasoft’s technology is used by hundreds of customers, including brands such as Boeing, Danone S.A., Home Depot, and Nestle.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented shift in what businesses are demanding to effectively manage their supply chains,” says Rob Bernshteyn, chairman and CEO at Coupa. “They need instant visibility, agile planning capabilities, and timely risk mitigation support.

“LLamasoft’s deep supply chain expertise and sophisticated data science and modeling capabilities, combined with the roughly $2 trillion of cumulative transactional spend data we have in Coupa, will empower businesses with the intelligence needed to pivot on a dime. Together, we will deliver a more powerful Business Spend Management platform to help organizations everywhere maximize the value of every dollar they spend in a smarter, simpler, and safer way.”

Launched in January 2020, LLamasoft’s newest product – llama.ai – delivers AI-powered decision making across the supply chain to support an almost unlimited number of use cases, says LLamasoft.

With llama.ai, organizations can create purpose-built applications that leverage an end-to-end decision data model and employ a library of proven supply chain algorithms. The applications can run “what-if” scenarios and surface valuable insights before organizations make key business decisions.

“We are very excited about joining forces with Coupa,” says Razat Gaurav, CEO at LLamasoft. “Combining Coupa’s market-leading spend management execution core and broad market reach with LLamasoft’s AI-powered supply chain analytics provides a unique opportunity to bring together digital transformation solutions that drive decision making and operational efficiency across the enterprise.”

The events of this year demonstrate the importance of supply chain agility, as companies work to more rapidly adapt to changing consumer preferences, economic conditions, and the political landscape.

With demand uncertainty on one hand, and supply volatility on the other, the companies say businesses are in need of supply chain technology that can help them assess alternatives and balance trade-offs to achieve desired business results. Coupa says LLamasoft provides these capabilities with its AI-powered cloud platform that empowers companies to make smarter supply chain decisions, faster.

“This very timely acquisition comes as supply chains are undergoing tremendous disruption that is best navigated using AI-enabled decision processes surrounding a digital twin of the end-to-end supply chain,” says Mickey North Rizza, program vice president of enterprise applications and digital commerce at IDC. “Incorporating supply chain planning capabilities as part of a comprehensive BSM strategy will give companies more visibility and control across their direct and indirect spend.”