With their approach, they have their finger on the pulse: The Viennese startup Prewave has specialized in the monitoring of global supply chains so that companies can assess their suppliers and monitor them automatically – indispensable in times when there are high requirements for the fulfillment of supply chain laws . At Prewave, an AI-powered platform monitors suppliers on social media and sends companies “highly relevant and specific alerts.”
As reported, Prewave already secured a round of financing of 11 million euros in 2022 (Trending Topics reported), and just over half a year later there are now 18 million euros in Series A+ on top. New on board is the early-stage investor Creandum, who has already invested in Trade Republic, Bolt, Voi, Klarna, Spotify and many other big names in the European startup and scale-up scene. The existing investors KOMPAS, Ventech seed+speed, Segnalita, Speedinvest, Working Capital Fund and xista science ventures (formerly IST Cube) are also participating in the round.
“Prewave started 2022 with a team of 20 people, but as a testament to the remarkable growth and success, the company has now surpassed the 100 employee mark. This expansion reflects Prewave’s significant increase in sales over the past year. Prewave has developed a comprehensive supply chain risk monitoring and compliance solution that establishes Prewave as a pioneer and key player in supply chain risk discipline. Now it’s time to become the first true end-to-end operating system for supply chain risk,” said co-founder Harald Nitschinger in a press release.
Prewave: EUR 11 million for Viennese start-up with supply chain AI
Supply chain laws increase demand
Prewave was founded in 2017 by Harald Nitschinger and Lisa Smith as a spin-off from Vienna University of Technology. The AI-powered platform can monitor more than 250,000 direct and indirect suppliers in 50 different languages and make sustainability alerts in over 50 categories. This should help corporate customers such as Volkswagen, BMW, Kärcher or KTM to comply with the German supply chain law, among other things. This has been in force since the beginning of 2023 and means, among other things, that companies based in Germany are liable for human rights violations in their supply chain.
There will also be such a set of rules at EU level, which goes by the name of “Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive” (CSDD Directive) and is also casually referred to as the Supply Chain Act. This is intended to bring stricter rules for climate protection and oblige companies to ensure that their value chains comply with human rights and environmental standards worldwide. As a result, the need for solutions like those from Prewave will increase.
EU supply chain law with stricter rules for climate protection planned