Bonfire Announces $11 Million Financing to Power Smarter, Faster Sourcing Decisions

WATERLOO, ON--(Marketwired - Jun 30, 2017) - Bonfire, a leader in sourcing enablement software, today announced it has raised $11 million in financing, with its latest round led by global investment firm Battery Ventures with participation from existing investors including Crosslink Capital and Spider Capital. The firm recently closed an $8 million Series A round and previously raised $3 million in seed financing. Battery and Crosslink were also early investors in Coupa, an eProcurement platform that went public in 2016. Battery Ventures' General Partner Michael Brown will join Bonfire's board of directors.

Bonfire -- whose software platform helps 170 organizations intelligently automate more than $12 billion of annual procurement decisions like requests for proposals (RFPs), bids, tenders, and reverse auctions -- plans to use the financing to expand its sales and marketing teams, while also escalating product development in key areas like predictive analytics.

"Over the last 10 years, companies like Concur, Gusto and BlackLine have modernized basic corporate processes such as expense management, HR and benefits administration, and financial reporting," said Michael Brown, general partner at Battery Ventures and new Bonfire board member. "So in 2017 it seems crazy that hundreds of billions -- if not trillions -- of dollars of procurement decisions are still being made offline, without the benefits of online collaboration and analysis. Excel is still the primary workhorse of sourcing decision-making."

Bonfire helps procurement teams make faster, more intelligent sourcing decisions. Its software helps clients define their sourcing objectives and requirements; engage suppliers; collect rich data from vendor proposals; and then collaboratively evaluate, analyze, and compare potential options online. Bonfire typically shortens the sourcing cycle by 50 percent and improves collaboration and compliance.

Bonfire's broad client base -- which includes public sector institutions and organizations in highly-regulated industries such as healthcare, natural resources and financial services -- uses the platform to handle a wide range of procurement projects. The flexible platform can be used for simple, low-dollar-value procurement decisions all the way up to highly-complex, multi-stage, hundred-million-dollar RFPs that require hundreds of stakeholders to collaboratively review thousands of pages of requirements and criteria.

Bonfire clients include: global accounting firm BDO; Chicago Board of Education, the third largest school board in the US; Ivy Tech Community College, the largest community college system in the US; the city of Louisville, Kentucky; Canada's national healthcare group purchasing organization Medbuy; Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the transit planning, financing and coordinating agency for the San Francisco Bay Area; and The University of Massachusetts university system. The Bonfire vendor community includes thousands of suppliers -- including the majority of the Fortune 1000.

"Bonfire's ability to simplify and automate high-complexity, high-consequence procurement decisions distinguishes the platform from basic 'next-generation' RFP tools and legacy bidding portals," said Ian Brennan, senior manager of procurement at global accounting firm BDO. "Bonfire stands alone in terms of meeting our needs and our clients' needs."

"We are seeing a fundamental shift in how procurement teams approach sourcing," said Corry Flatt, Bonfire CEO and co-founder. "Procurement teams used to work in isolation, focused on largely tactical outcomes like incremental cost savings or basic compliance. But today's procurement leaders have a new imperative: to drive transformative, strategic change. They're searching for ways to make their sourcing process smarter, faster, more collaborative and data-driven -- and that's where Bonfire wins."

He added, "We are delighted to have Michael and the Battery team join us. Battery's partners have a deep understanding of our vision and we look forward to partnering with them as we scale."

Bonfire seed investors FundersClub and Garage.vc also participated in the series A financing alongside Battery Ventures, Crosslink Capital and Spider Capital. Bonfire is also a Y-Combinator graduate of the winter 2015 cohort. 

About Bonfire
Bonfire is the world's leading sourcing enablement platform. Bonfire goes beyond the basic automation of eProcurement suites and older bidding tools -- it's a collaborative, powerful and insightful cloud-based platform for modern sourcing teams.

Bonfire is trusted with over one billion dollars of sourcing decisions each month, and has been one of the fastest growing new procurement technologies. In 2017, Bonfire was recognized by the leading procurement industry publication Spend Matters as a top 50 company to watch. Learn how easier collaboration, richer data, and deeper automation can transform your sourcing team by visiting GoBonfire.com.

About Battery Ventures
Battery strives to invest in cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including software and services, Web infrastructure, consumer Internet, mobile and industrial technologies. Founded in 1983, the firm backs companies at stages ranging from seed to private equity and invests globally from offices in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Tel Aviv and London. Follow the firm on Twitter @BatteryVentures, visit our website at http://www.battery.com and find a full list of Battery's portfolio companies here.