Lio raises 25.7 million euros

Munich-based startup Lio has secured €25.7 million ($30 million) in Series A funding, led by venture capital investor Andreessen Horowitz. SV Angels, investor Harry Stebbings, and Y Combinator also participated. The capital will be used to further develop the platform and expand into the US.

Lio develops software for so-called agentic AI in corporate procurement. The platform is designed to automate purchasing processes that are currently manual in many companies. These include, for example, comparing offers, analyzing suppliers, negotiating, and placing orders.

Vlad Keil, Co-Founder and CEO of Lio, predicts:

"The purchasing organization of the future will fundamentally change. Teams will no longer grow through additional employees or new tools, but through AI agents that perform tasks completely."

AI agents take over purchasing processes

The platform works with specialized partners. AI-Agents who work on procurement processes in parallel. They analyze suppliers, compare offers, coordinate approvals, and trigger orders. The systems access existing company software such as ERP systems, email inboxes, contract data, or web sources.

Lio refers to this approach as "Agent Operating Procedures." The underlying idea is that AI systems can independently execute standardized purchasing processes.

According to the startup, its AI agents now manage procurement volumes in the billions. Since the platform's launch in 2023, several large industrial companies have been using the technology. Customers include the reinsurer Munich Re, the automotive supplier Brose, and the biotechnology company Novozymes.

Jared Petras, Senior Director of Global Procurement Digital Transformation at Walmart, confirms from a user perspective:

"Agent AI systems will be crucial in determining how companies structure their purchasing organization in the future."

Boost for Munich's startup ecosystem 

Procurement is considered particularly complex, especially in large industrial companies. These companies spend large sums annually on personnel in procurement, while software has so far only automated a small part of these processes.

This development is also relevant for Munich's startup ecosystem because several large industrial companies from the surrounding region are among the users of the technology. Munich Re and Brose are among the companies that, according to Lio already working with the platform.

This reveals a typical pattern in the B2B software market: Young technology companies develop specialized AI applications, which large industrial companies test as early testers.