Thoughts on Coupa

Ten years ago this month Coupa raised its Series A from BlueRun. $1.5M seemed about right for a few engineers with a PowerPoint and some relevant domain knowledge, so we happily led the round. In the ensuing decade leading up to today’s IPO, just about everything has changed aside from the name (inspired by a Palo Alto coffee shop), the logo (bought on 99 Designs), and the mission to make enterprise procurement software as easy to use as Amazon while making cloud procurement a “best practice” for procurement officers everywhere.

Much has been written about the benefits of the cloud, all of which are true: lower TCO, better version control, more regular functionality upgrades, etc. What is not covered as much is the benefits of being part of a real-time network. In Coupa’s case that means immediate approvals, current pricing, live expense monitoring vs budget, and comparisons to industry peers, to name just a few benefits. In today’s business climate, where acting on data in real-time can be the difference between success and failure, businesses relying on services built on the cloud clearly have their sensibilities firmed grounded.