A Sydney-based contract and supplier software platform Portt, which spent a decade bootstrapping its way into a global business, has finally take on its first outside funding as it looks to tackle slavery risks in company supply chains.
Co-founders and co-CEOs Chris Holmes and Andre Pinkowski raised $4 million in a round led by the CVC Emerging Companies Fund and closed last December.
Portt has more than 30 clients, including NSW Health, and the ABC, and offices in Sydney, Newcastle and Ho Chi Minh City, with a team of 35.
Homes said that they were taking on funds for the first time in order to scale, expanding its focus on improving transparency, accountability and eliminating modern slavery from government and company supply chains.
“This injection of funds will help fuel the launch of the next version of our contract and supplier platform, which doubles down on our aim to improve transparency across the supply chain for both government and enterprise,” he said.
“Our growth to date has been a result of both government and companies paying greater attention to their supply chain – and not just to cut costs.”
He’s predicting Portt will continue to grow annual recurring revenue by double digits with the increased capital, warning that poorly understood procurement practices are a legal risk and potentially politically embarrassing for governments, especially with the national 2018 Slavery Act penalising any entity which either intentionally or unintentionally leverages slavery in their supply chain.
CVC Emerging Companies Fund investment director Christian Jensen said Portt’s software can compete with large, incumbent providersas well as providing a simple and flexible solution for small clients switching from manual systems.
“Having largely completed a software upgrade, we believe Portt is now in an excellent position to scale,” he said.
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