The pandemic has put the pedal to the metal of business digitisation. This has become an opportunity for many tech startups, which have seen strong expansion in the last year. In the midst of this boom, wherEX, a pioneer in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline private sector tendering processes, has seen strong growth in its customer base, supplier pool and transactions through the platform. This is in addition to its rapid international expansion, with a presence in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
"This year we expect to reach 200 buying clients (currently 120) and 30,000 suppliers bidding through the tool globally. This would mean between US$800 million and one billion in transactions through wherEX," wherEX co-founder Felipe Manterola projected on the TXS radio programme Moov.
"In addition, we are closing a capital raise in order to sustain high-speed growth in Latin America, which we expect to expand to the US in 2022," he added.
WherEX uses Artificial Intelligence to generate the best match between the customer's requirement and the available pool of suppliers. The key is to group and categorise the needs of the companies to cross-reference the offer. This generates competition and transparency, which translates into a positive economic impact on tendering processes.
The startup has also invested resources in developing its Analytics area. This allows both customers and suppliers to have access to different metrics in real time, to detect opportunities and analyse their purchasing behaviour.
"Our Data Science team does market analysis, where they have identified for example the economic impact of an additional bid, which means on average a 1.5% drop in the final cost. Likewise, when the concentration of suppliers in a tender decreases by 10%, costs decrease by up to 2%," says Manterola.
In addition to promoting smart purchasing, the platform creates a virtuous circle for decision-making. Companies can have access to 360° information that allows them not only to be based on price, but also to see if the supplier is an SME, if it is local, if it has certifications, if it is well evaluated, etc.
"We have seen a strong impact on SMEs, which account for 70% of the business awards, in terms of number of processes. In terms of amounts, almost 40% go to SMEs. So the economic impact is very relevant, how you manage to reduce transaction costs and a much more virtuous trade from a business point of view," he says.
WherEX was born in the salmon capital of Chile: Puerto Varas. Its founders Juan Carlos Hurtado and Felipe Manterola saw the opportunity when they detected that there was a lack of transparency in procurement processes, excessive discretion and lack of traceability. In addition, there was limited access to the existing supply.
The platform for business purchases and quotations, which arrived to generate openness, competition and transparency in the industry, quickly expanded to the rest of the sectors when it detected that these pains were cross-cutting. Today it is already present in Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia and is expected to reach the US by 2022.
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Colombia
