Many Fortune Global 2000 companies have thousands of vendors with contracts that have been neglected for long periods of time because the value of the contracts are too small and too numerous to warrant proper procurement specialists’ time. Enter Pactum, a Mountain View, CA-based tech startup founded in 2019 to help companies uncover hidden value in supplier contracts. Pactum increases the value of vendor or employee contracts by negotiating win- win agreements on a massive scale.
Today, Pactum announced it has closed $3 million seed financing to enable global companies to automate personalized commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The round led by Berlin-based Project A, a V.C. focused on innovative startups, with investments by DocuSign and other previous Pactum investors.
Founded by Kaspar Korjus, Kristjan Korjus, and Martin Rand, Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to autonomously offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The company autonomously negotiates supplier contracts, which releases significant capital to the bottom line while also improving terms for vendors. Pactum was built by luminaries from Skype, Starship Technologies and the Government of Estonia’s e-Residency program. Walmart is one of the first customers Pactum is able to disclose.
The system adds value and saves time for both the Pactum client and their negotiation partner by aligning their values to determine win-win agreements via an easy-to-use chat interface that implements best-practice negotiation strategies. The web-based tool’s applications range from supplier negotiations for online marketplaces to enterprise and retail procurement negotiations. Pactum is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. The startup is backed by founders of Skype and TransferWise along with DocuSign and Project A.
“We’re happy to announce this round of funding which will bring our technology to more enterprises that need it,” said Martin Rand, Pactum CEO. “Project A is at the forefront of the most innovative breakthroughs in tech and AI and DocuSign is an iconic brand in the world of agreements, so we feel they provide the perfect balance for us.”
“We are convinced that AI-based systems will shape the future of commercial negotiations. Pactum is well on its way to play an essential role in this future. Therefore we are happy to support this great company,” said Uwe Horstmann, General Partner of Project A.
Pactum is working on negotiations in a variety of industries and a majority of its clients are Fortune 500 companies. On average, 74% to 82% of companies interacting with Pactum’s AI prefer it over a conversation with a human. For recent customers, Pactum increased the value of long tail deals by 11% to 27%.
Pactum’s team of analysts begins each project by mapping what they call the “value function” in a given set of negotiations. This is combined by Pactum’s negotiation chatbot which is capable of autonomously conducting best practice negotiations prepared by Pactum’s negotiation scientists. Once a negotiation is complete, all information is updated automatically in relevant systems such as ERP and CRM.
