Arkestro’s Series A deck is a lean, 10-slide presentation that prioritizes social proof and category authority over granular financial metrics. Raising $26M in 2022, the company positioned itself as the leader in 'Predictive Procurement Orchestration.' The deck’s strength lies in its team slide, which highlights a direct lineage from procurement giant Ariba, and its customer validation slide featuring a Fortune 100 giant. By focusing on high-level outcomes—such as saving €590k on a €3.6M spend for BASF—Arkestro demonstrates immediate ROI for enterprise buyers. While the deck lacks a formal 'A…
Key takeaways
- The deck leans heavily on a specific case study with BASF, citing a savings of €590k on €3.6M in spend (Slide 4).
- Domain expertise is the core value proposition, with the team slide highlighting 'early Ariba Go To Market' experience (Slide 5).
- Arkestro positions itself as a 'Value Leader' on a Spend Matters SolutionMap, placing it ahead of legacy competitors like SAP Ariba (Slide 8).
- The product is designed for speed, claiming customers see impact in under 30 days and can process 5k+ items in less than 2 weeks (Slides 4 and 7).
- Interoperability is a key selling point, with the deck claiming 1,000+ pre-built API integrations for major ERPs like Oracle and Workday (Slide 9).
- The deck completely omits a financial 'Ask' slide, a roadmap, and a detailed breakdown of the business model or unit economics.
- The company defines a new category, 'Predictive Procurement Orchestration,' to differentiate from standard procurement apps (Slide 1).
- Third-party validation is used as a substitute for internal growth metrics, specifically citing the Gartner 'Cool Vendor 2021' award (Slide 8).
The 10-Slide Series A Strategy
Arkestro’s 2022 Series A deck is a study in brevity. At just 10 slides, it avoids the common pitfall of over-explaining technical architecture. Instead, it focuses on the 'Who' and the 'Who says.' In the enterprise software world, where sales cycles are long and risk aversion is high, Arkestro uses its deck to prove it is a safe, high-ROI bet for Fortune 500 companies. The deck was used to secure $26M in funding, as reported by Business Insider, during a period where procurement and supply chain resilience became top-tier executive priorities.
Slide 1: Title and Category Definition
The cover slide introduces the brand and its self-defined category: Predictive Procurement Orchestration . The sub-headline, 'Instant recommendations and feedback to amplify procurement’s impact,' sets the stage for a value-driven conversation rather than a feature-driven one. By using the word 'Orchestration,' they signal that they sit on top of existing systems rather than requiring a 'rip and replace' strategy.
Slide 2: The Problem of Legacy Apps
Slide 2 identifies the pain points of current procurement cycles: they take too long, cost too much, and are unpredictable. The slide highlights three specific symptoms: Reactive buying , Low savings , and Shortages & delays . This slide is minimalist, using red icons to emphasize the 'broken' nature of the status quo without cluttering the page with text.
Slide 3: The Three-Step Solution
Arkestro breaks its solution into three distinct phases: 1. Simulate the procurement cycle before it begins. 2. Email supplier offers and instant counter-offers. 3. Orchestrate supplier back-and-forth. This slide is critical because it explains the 'How' of their machine learning engine without using jargon. It positions the software as an active participant in the negotiation, not just a record-keeping tool.
Slide 4: The 'Big Fish' Case Study
This is arguably the most important slide in the deck. It features BASF , a Fortune 100 enterprise. The metrics are specific and impressive: Saved €590k on €3.6M in spend for screws and fasteners. It also highlights operational efficiency, noting that 5k+ items were processed in less than 2 weeks with no manual email or Excel. Including a screenshot of the invitation interface makes the product feel real and tangible.
Slide 5: The 'Ariba Mafia' Team
Arkestro makes a bold claim on Slide 5: they are procurement domain experts and ML engineers combined with the 'early Ariba Go To Market team.' By featuring Rob DeSantis (Ariba Co-Founder) and other leaders with logos from Oracle, Salesforce, and Ariba , they tell investors that this team has already built and sold the category-defining products of the previous generation. This significantly de-risks the execution side of the investment.
Slide 6: The Technical Moat
Slide 6 attempts to explain the 'secret sauce.' It mentions game theory, human behavioral science, and machine learning . The three pillars of their tech are Scaling Best Practices (mining the 'wisdom of crowds'), Predictive Error-Handling (fixing outliers without human intervention), and Flexible Decision Constraints (applying lead time or allocation rules). This slide bridges the gap between the simple solution on Slide 3 and the complex reality of enterprise supply chains.
Slide 7: Broad Market Validation
To prove BASF wasn't a fluke, Slide 7 provides four more testimonials from leaders at Auto Truck Group, Bel, Dover Chemical Corporation, and Box . The slide promises impact in under 30 days , addressing the enterprise fear of multi-year implementation timelines. The use of headshots and titles (CFO, Director of Sourcing) adds a layer of personal accountability to the claims.
Slide 8: Third-Party Market Positioning
Arkestro uses external authorities to validate their market position. They include a Spend Matters SolutionMap where Arkestro is plotted as a 'Value Leader,' notably higher on the analyst score than legacy players like SAP Ariba and Jaggaer. They also prominently display their Gartner Cool Vendor 2021 badge. This is a classic Series A tactic: let the analysts do the bragging for you.
Slide 9: The Ecosystem Play
Enterprise software lives or dies by its integrations. Slide 9 lists 1,000+ pre-built API integrations . By showing the logos of SAP, Oracle, Workday, and Coupa , Arkestro assures investors and customers that their 'orchestration' layer can actually talk to the systems of record that enterprises already use. This addresses the 'technical debt' objection early.
Slide 10: Contact Information
The deck ends with a simple contact slide. There is no 'Ask' slide detailing how the $26M will be spent, which suggests this version of the deck may have been intended for broad distribution or as a follow-up after an initial meeting where the terms were already discussed.
What Arkestro Does Exceptionally Well
Leveraging Domain Authority: The most striking part of this deck is the team slide. In enterprise SaaS, investors aren't just buying code; they are buying the team's ability to navigate complex sales cycles and understand the nuances of the industry. By explicitly linking themselves to Ariba—the original procurement giant—they position Arkestro as the natural evolution of the industry.
Quantifiable ROI: The BASF slide (Slide 4) is a masterclass in social proof. It doesn't just say 'we save money'; it gives a specific Euro amount saved against a specific total spend for a specific category of goods. This level of detail makes the value proposition undeniable.
Speed as a Feature: Enterprise software is notorious for long 'time-to-value.' Arkestro counters this by repeatedly mentioning speed: 'under 30 days' for impact (Slide 7) and ' The Financial 'Ask': There is no slide indicating how much money is being raised, the valuation, or the intended use of funds. While this is common in 'public' versions of decks, a fundraising analyst would want to see the hiring plan and R&D roadmap that the $26M would support.
Unit Economics: The deck is heavy on customer ROI but silent on company ROI. There is no mention of Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), or Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth. For a Series A, these are usually mandatory metrics.
Competitive Landscape: While the Spend Matters map (Slide 8) shows where they sit, it doesn't explain why they win against specific competitors or how they protect their moat against incumbents who might add similar ML features.
Founder's Playbook: Lessons to Copy
Define a New Category: Don't just be 'better procurement software.' Be 'Predictive Procurement Orchestration.' If you can define the category, you set the rules for how you are evaluated. Arkestro successfully moves the goalposts away from 'process management' to 'predictive outcomes.'
Use 'Logo Soup' Strategically: Don't just list customers; list the systems you integrate with. In enterprise tech, showing you play well with SAP and Oracle (Slide 9) is just as important as showing you have customers like BASF. It proves you are 'enterprise-ready.'
Social Proof Over Feature Lists: Arkestro spends more time showing faces of happy customers (Slide 7) than it does showing screenshots of the software. In B2B, the 'fear of being the first' is real. Overcoming that fear with high-quality testimonials is more effective than any feature list.
Frequently asked questions
- How much did Arkestro raise with this deck?
- As reported by Business Insider, Arkestro raised $26 million in a Series A round in 2022. The deck itself does not state the amount being raised or the valuation, which is common for decks shared publicly after a round closes.
- What is 'Predictive Procurement Orchestration'?
- It is the category Arkestro uses to describe its machine learning-driven approach. According to Slide 3, this involves simulating procurement cycles before they begin and using automated email counter-offers to orchestrate supplier back-and-forth, rather than relying on manual reactive buying.
- Who are the key people on the Arkestro team?
- The team includes CEO Edmund Zagorin and CTO Ben Leiken. Crucially, the deck highlights Co-Founder Rob DeSantis (a co-founder of Ariba and early LinkedIn team member) and several other leaders with deep experience at Ariba, Oracle, and Salesforce (Slide 5).
- Does the deck show any actual software screenshots?
- Yes, Slide 4 shows a mobile-responsive interface for a 'Purchase Requisition' from North SD Inc., demonstrating how a supplier can 'Accept' or 'Modify' a quote amount directly within the platform.
- What integrations does Arkestro support?
- Slide 9 lists 1,000+ pre-built API integrations. The logos displayed include enterprise giants such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Infor, Workday, Zycus, Ariba, Coupa, and Jaggaer.
