3 min read
ProcureTech Insider: Why Procurement Tech Still Draws Investor Interest
Philip Ideson : November 4, 2026
“What we've found is that enterprises are leaning on their most trusted providers and asking them to add capabilities.” - Jack Andrews, M&A Director, Ciesco
Procurement technology has attracted significant investment in recent years, but AI disruption and changing software valuations have created uncertainty about where the market is heading. For technology founders, understanding what investors value has become increasingly important.
In this episode of ProcureTech Insider, I speak with Jack Andrews, M&A Director at Ciesco and an executive judge for the 2027 ProcureTech100, about investor appetite for procurement technology, what makes a provider attractive to potential buyers, and how consolidation could reshape the market.
Why is procurement technology an attractive sector for investors?
“When we first started covering it, when you look at other ERP divisions, like sales and marketing, HR, they've adopted technology and software a lot faster.
You look at procurement as more of a manually focused industry. And it's because of that reason why we've seen a lot of investment, because tech adoption across all industries has been very strong, but in procurement, it's behind.
The executive board is looking at the supply chain and thinking, how do we become more robust? How do we become more flexible? And that's put procurement and supply chain in focus.
Similarly, as enterprises are looking at how they optimize costs across the organization, procurement is probably one of the first places you would look, or it's certainly very high up on the list.”
How has AI changed the way investors value software companies?
“People view software as just one sector, whereas now what we're seeing is you've got your horizontal SaaS and your vertical SaaS, and where it's really impacted is in the horizontal SaaS market.
It's solutions – which sit on top of data rather than own the data – they sit across a number of different verticals, whereas the vertical solutions, they are integrated with enterprise infrastructure, they're involved in day-to-day operations, there's often proprietary data, and so the appetite for those companies is still there.
I like to describe this as a seesaw. In 2021, the seesaw was relatively flat, whereas in 2026, it's a lot steeper.
For really good companies, you're getting quite attractive multiples, but for more horizontally exposed businesses, it's gone the other way.”
What makes a procurement technology provider stand out to potential buyers?
“The single most useful piece of data is revenue by customer.
If you can look at that over a period of time, you can see what the retention is. Are customers repeat customers? Because that tells you that you're delivering value. And that's the most important thing.
But it also shows: are you upselling to these customers? Are these customers asking you to add capabilities and start moving into different verticals?
What we've found is that enterprises are leaning on their most trusted providers and asking them to add capabilities. And so if you are one of those incumbents delivering a good solution in whatever vertical you're in, you then get asked to expand your capabilities.
That's a very strong signal to investors and to buyers that your solution's providing value and that there's scope to expand.”
What advice would you give procurement technology founders considering selling their businesses?
“What I say to founders, and what I say to business owners, is the best time to sell is driven by your own personal ambitions, really. And is there a perfect time to sell? No.
If your business is growing, and it's growing strongly, and you're confident that the business is going to create value over the next two or three years, you might want to sell part of your business now, cash in some money, bring on a partner that can help accelerate that growth and de-risk.
Firstly, look at your own personal situation. Does it feel like the right time to sell?
And if you've got a good business that's growing, there'll be a buyer for it, whether it's a strategic business, whether it's a private equity firm, or whether it's a growth capital firm.”
How do you expect the procurement technology market to evolve over the next five years?
“I think we'll continue to see this consolidation. So I think probably in five years, you'll have two or three largest players in the market.
And you'll probably have an orchestration or agent layer on top, which is priced on outcomes rather than seats.
And I think you'll have a long tail of specialist providers.
If we're looking at it from a perspective of how much of that is automated compared to today, I think a lot of the tasks can be within procurement.
What we're seeing across other industries is that there needs to be human oversight. AI needs to be focused on efficiencies and improving processes, but it can't replace decision-making and strategy.
It can feed into those and improve those, but I think the human element is still incredibly important.”