Taking the Pain out of Procurement: Our Investment in Omnea

The days of simply checking with the finance team when you needed to buy something, agreeing the budget and then purchasing are a distant memory. Today, the majority of businesses are faced with extremely complex and lengthy procurement experiences for a number of reasons. With covid driving the rise of the remote workforce, accelerating cloud adoption, combined with an ever-evolving regulatory environment, and the increasing adoption of voluntary certifications (SOC 2 and ISO 27001), it’s no wonder that such fragmented procurement processes have emerged. Research suggests that it currently takes an average of six months and the involvement of more than 11 stakeholders to move from identification to final purchase. 

This delay often pushes exasperated employees to disregard the procurement process, resulting in increased supplier risk and shadow IT. The ongoing sprawl in tools and suppliers also creates wasted spend. Unfortunately, traditional procurement tools have failed to address these challenges; existing solutions are clunky and disjointed, causing widespread frustration and operational inefficiencies across the organization — all while adding unnecessary costs. 

Founded by Ben Freeman and Ben Allen, Omnea was created to transform procurement. Historically perceived as a cost center, procurement has transformed from an unloved process into a key strategic pillar that extends beyond spend control. Omnea’s platform provides the central operating system for supplier management, combining the flexibility enterprises need with a user experience that drives (rather than deters) adoption. We believe the Omnea team’s approach to procurement automation and orchestration has the potential to redefine both spend control and compliance in a category that is projected to reach more than $13 billion by 2030.

Ben Freeman is no stranger to the Accel team as we met him during his time building portfolio company Tessian. It was here that he saw the challenges with procurement both as an operator—navigating spend, adoption, and control within a fast growing company—and where he learnt the art of collaborating with large enterprises on their critical risk and security infrastructure. We’re especially excited as Ben has also been joined by other veterans from the Tessian leadership team—Abhirukt Sapru and Sabrina Castiglione.

The market for Omnea is significant and the company is already seeing impressive momentum, securing large, public, and regulated businesses such as Hargreaves Lansdown, McAfee, Proofpoint and TeamViewer.  

As the company announces its Series A, we’re excited to be partnering with Ben Freeman, Ben Allen and the Omnea team on the next stage of their journey as they shape the future of supplier management.