Why Coupa (COUP) Is Buying LLamasoft For About $1.5 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry • Nov 3, 2020
  • Business Spend Management leader Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) announced this week that it has acquired LLamasoft for about $1.5 billion. These are the details.

Business Spend Management leader Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) announced this week that it has acquired LLamasoft, a leader in AI-powered supply chain design and planning for a purchase price of approximately $1.5 billion. Based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, LLamasoft’s technology is used by hundreds of enterprise customers such as Boeing, Danone S.A., Home Depot, and Nestle. This acquisition will strengthen Coupa’s supply chain capabilities, enabling businesses to drive greater value through Business Spend Management.

The events of this year continue to demonstrate the importance of supply chain agility as companies work to more rapidly adapt to changing consumer preferences, economic conditions, and the political landscape. And with demand uncertainty on one hand and supply volatility on the other, companies are in need of supply chain technology that is able to help them assess alternatives and balance trade-offs to achieve desired business results. LLamasoft offers these capabilities with an AI-powered cloud platform that empowers companies to make smarter supply chain decisions at a faster rate.

Launched in January 2020, LLamasoft’s newest product llama.ai is known for delivers AI-powered decision making across the supply chain to support an almost unlimited number of use cases. And with llama.ai, organizations can create purpose-built applications that utilize an end-to-end decision data model and employ a library of proven supply chain algorithms. These applications are able to run what-if scenarios and surface valuable insights before organizations make key business decisions.

KEY QUOTES:

“We are witnessing an unprecedented shift in what businesses are demanding to effectively manage their supply chains. 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.”

— Rob Bernshteyn, chairman and CEO at Coupa

“We are very excited about joining forces with Coupa. 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. I am equally excited for employees of both organizations who share a culture that prioritizes delivering innovation and exceptional customer value.”

— Razat Gaurav, CEO at LLamasoft

“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. 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.”

— Mickey North Rizza, program vice president of enterprise applications and digital commerce at IDC