o9 has announced a minority equity investment from KKR. It sees the integrated business planning platform valued at more than one billion dollars. As its first round of funding gaining KKR as a VC partner is a significant vindication of its platform. Jimmy Miele, Principal at KKR, said: “As we evaluated this investment and spoke to industry participants, what stood out is o9’s reputation for innovation and excellence in execution, as well as the strong endorsements of their technology by blue-chip clients. We are excited to back this team of proven supply chain planning industry pioneers as they scale and enhance their next-generation platform.”

o9 was founded in 2009 by Sanjiv Sidhu and Chakri Gottemukkala. It is already a leader in the Gartner S&OP magic quadrant. It provides four AI/ML-driven solutions for:

  • Integrated Planning
  • Revenue and Demand Management
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Integrated Retail Planning

o9 already has major customers such as Walmart, Caterpillar and Bridgestone and will now look to accelerate its growth.  Chakri Gottemukkala, o9 CEO and Co-Founder said: “With KKR’s backing we will be able to accelerate the delivery of our differentiated technology solution to clients across the globe and realize our objective of becoming a category-defining platform for digital transformation of integrated business planning and operations.

That growth saw it open its European last year in the Netherlands. It also has offices in Spain, India, the US, Japan, South Korea and Germany.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean?

KKR is rarely a first investor in businesses. That it has done so with o9 indicates that it believes the company has significant potential. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but KKR invested from its KKR Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II which closed in January 2020.

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