Contingent bags £1.7M: UK headquartered startup aims to reduce risk and strengthen supply chain

In the recent past, numerous organisations have been shaken by unexpected supply-chain vulnerabilities and disruptions, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the reason behind this is the lack of solid processes to identify and manage growing supply-chain risks.

Based out of London, Contingent is an enterprise supplier risk and resilience platform that provides users with tools and services to assess, screen, monitor, and analyse risks in their supply chains. In the latest development, the company raised a $2.3 million (approx £1.7 million) Seed funding round led by Connect Ventures. The round also includes participation from Seedcamp, Concentric, and Angel Invest Ventures.

How will the funding be used?

The funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand the number of key supply chain risk parameters that can be used during the assessment process.

According to the company, a key focus will be on delivering analytic support to measure fragility and resilience in clients’ supply chains, and the team will be improving the platforms’ ability to integrate with enterprise-focused systems.

The funding will also be used to make several strategic hires, with plans to double headcount within the next 12-months.

Founded by veterans and AI researchers

Founded by a team of financial risk technology veterans and AI researchers, Contingent leverages AI to deliver third-party risk due diligence, proactive monitoring, and operational resilience.

The UK company aims to empower procurement, compliance, and operational professionals with proactive AI predictions and real-time, actionable alerts. It’s worth mentioning that, the platform actively screens, monitors, and updates users on the risk present in their supply chains.

Operates in a wide-range of markets

Contingent operates in a wide range of markets, including financial services, defence, banking, healthcare, and technology. Some of the known companies are challenger bank Monzo, payments provider Vyne, and several HM Government departments.

With AI, the company has helped these customers map, manage, and monitor their suppliers, providing detailed insight into their supply chains as well as reducing the administrative strain on their procurement teams.

Currently, the company operates out of the UK, with a presence in the US and serving clients who have international operations. As per the company’s claims, the customers can sign up for the services and platform within a matter of minutes and use the platform daily to assess and monitor risk in their supply chains.

Tai Alegbe, CEO and co-founder of Contingent said: “There’s never been a greater need to ensure our supply chains are robust and fit for purpose, and this fresh capital injection will ensure our customers have the tools they need to deliver operational resilience. To put it simply, traditional third-party risk management solutions have significant shortcomings, relying on static and reactive monitoring of suppliers which inevitably leads to inaccurate insights. That’s why we’ll be investing heavily in R&D and creating new enterprise partnerships so more users have access to our proactive monitoring capabilities and deep insights and analytics”

Rory Stirling, General Partner at Connect Ventures added: “The COVID-19 epidemic has shone a light on the fragility of our supply chains, so this is the perfect time for Connect to lend our support, expertise, and network to Tai and his team as they help strengthen the ecosystem. At Connect we’ve always been focused on finding entrepreneurs with a product-led mindset who can solve hard problems at scale, and it’s fair to say Contingent has exceeded our expectations as evidenced by the stellar roster of clients they’ve won at such an early stage.”

Original article

Contingent website