Tradeshift

Tradeshift was founded in 2010 by Christian Lanng, Mikkel Hippe Brun, and Gert Sylvest. Inspiration for Tradeshift came after they created the world's first large scale peer-to-peer infrastructure for an e-business called NemHandel. The founders also had leading roles (Governing board member, Technical Director[4]) in the European Commission project PEPPOL inside the European Union.[5]

In 2010, the Tradeshift platform launched in May in Copenhagen. Tradeshift won the European Startup Awards in the category of "Best Business or Enterprise Startup."[6] In 2011, Tradeshift made its app marketplace available.[7]

In 2012, Tradeshift moved their headquarters from Copenhagen to San Francisco.[8] In 2013, Tradeshift opened an R&D center in Suzhou, China.[9] Tradeshift opened an additional office in London.[10] And LATAM e-invoicing capabilities were added through partnership with Invoiceware.[10]

In 2014, Tradeshift expanded with offices in Tokyo,[11] Paris, and Munich.[12] The EU Commission officially approved the Universal Business Language (UBL) data format – a format Tradeshift supports – as eligible for referencing in tenders from public administrations.[13]

In 2015, Tradeshift won the Circulars "Digital Disruptor" Award at the WEF conference in Davos, Switzerland.[14] Tradeshift also acquired product information management company Merchantry, and launched e-procurement and supplier risk management solutions.[15] In 2016, Tradeshift acquired Hyper Travel[16] and secured a $75 million series-D round funding.[17] In 2017, Tradeshift acquired IBX Business Network and launches Tradeshift Ada.[18]

In 2018, Tradeshift secured a $250 million series-E round funding.[19] and launched Blockchain Payments, the latter as part of Tradeshift Pay.[20] In December 2018 Tradeshift acquired Babelway, an online B2B integration platform. The acquisition added three new office locations to Tradeshift (Salt Lake City, Louvain-la-neuve, Belgium, Cairo Egypt).[21] In Q3 2018, Tradeshift reported year-over-year revenue growth of 400%, new bookings growth of 284%, and gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth of 262%. New total contract value also grew by US$47 million. Additionally, it added 27 new customers including Hertz, Shiseido, ECU and multiple Fortune 500 companies.[22]

In October 2019, Tradeshift partnered with Abreon to help businesses implement new technology and establish new procedures smoothly and effectively.[23]

In March 2020, Tradeshift collaborated with DXC for automation of procure-to-pay processes.[24]

The company's valuation as of May 2018 was $1.1 billion.[25] Tradeshift is now considered a unicorn,[26] and, according to Bloomberg, will not need any further funding.[25]

Jan 14, 2020, Tradeshift announced that they had raised $240M in Series F finance.[27]

2015: Tradeshift acquired product information management company Merchantry.[15] Merchantry is retail product information management (PIM) software for multi-vendor ecommerce retailers. Merchantry is known for managing retail product information for ecommerce retailers, including amazon.com, Marks & Spencer, and others.

2016: Tradeshift acquired Hyper Travel.[16] Hyper Travel is a travel management service that allows customers to access travel agents via its native messaging apps, SMS, and email.

2017: Tradeshift acquired IBX Business Network.[18]

2018: Tradeshift acquired Babelway, an online B2B integration platform.[28]

As of 2018, Tradeshift had over 500 global customers[29][30] spanning six continents and 190 countries. A sampling of Tradeshift customers include Air France KLM,[31] Kuehne + Nagel International AG, DHL, Fujitsu, HSBC, Siemens, Société Générale, Unilever, and Volvo.[32]

• Jonathan Løw: The GuruBook: Insights from 45 Pioneering Entrepreneurs and Leaders on Business Strategy an Innovation. Chapter: Christian Lanng, Leadership from the trenches. CRC Press: Boca Raton, Florida 2018.