Arkestro - Strategic Capital
$36M Raised
Some startups crawl into the market with MVPs lightly pieced together. Others, like Arkestro, crash through the wall Kool-Aid Man style, with code that writes itself, science that negotiates better than your top buyer, and a platform that doesn’t just predict procurement outcomes, it orchestrates them.
This isn’t your cousin’s sourcing tool. Founded in 2016 by Edmund Zagorin and Robert DeSantis, Arkestro was born from the spreadsheet hell that eats procurement teams alive. The founding moment? A frustrated conversation in Potrero Hill, where Edmund and future CTO Ben Leiken figured they could teach machines to do what humans were stuck optimizing with pivot tables and cold brews. Smart defaults became the gospel. AI, behavioral science, and game theory became the holy trinity. And just like that, sourcing wasn’t just streamlined, it got predictive.
Fast forward to May 2025: Arkestro just locked in a $36M strategic investment led by Altira Group and Aramco Ventures, with returning firepower from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), KdT Ventures, and Activant Capital. That’s not a raise. That’s a launch sequence. J.P. Bauman from Altira is now on the board, and so are two energy sector juggernauts: Robert Turnham. and Bobby Tudor. You don’t stack a bench like that unless you’re scaling something serious.
This platform isn’t playing the same game. It delivers 18.8% savings per $1M in spend, accelerates cycles by 60%, and lets clients reallocate 70% of their time toward strategy, not scavenger hunts. Real stories? A multi national energy firm shaved 20% off procurement margins. A U.S. auto manufacturer saved $23M optimizing copper buys during a market tantrum. One client tripled their spend influence and 5X’d revenue, without hiring anyone new.
Arkestro lives inside your ERP stack, SAP Ariba, Oracle, Coupa Software, JAGGAER, no new logins, no user revolt. This is “invisible AI” done right. And with integrations tightening up across energy, manufacturing, and construction, Arkestro’s not just growing, it’s moving markets.
R&D is dialing up with 15 new AI engineers, Singapore’s getting a new office, and the energy vertical is about to get its own war room. ESG forecasting and autonomous contracts are next. This isn’t the future of procurement. This is procurement, for enterprises who stopped calling it a cost center and started treating it like a growth engine.
Props to CEO Rob DeSantis, CSO Edmund Zagorin, and CTO Ben Leiken for building something that doesn’t just fix a broken process, it rewires the entire function. $64M raised to date, and they’re just hitting tempo.
Let’s connect and keep the momentum going across the tech ecosystem. Whether you’re a founder shaping the future, a leader driving change, a VC backing bold ideas, or an investor spotting the next big thing—together, we’re pushing boundaries. Proud to be building the future with you.
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