Tengo makes use of AI to search out, consider and reply to public tenders. It’s a software-as-a-service instrument that helps firms deal with public tenders at scale — a bit like Govly within the U.S. Initially created throughout the startup studio Hexa, the startup has raised a €3 million funding spherical led by Level 9 ($3.2 million at present alternate charges).
For many firms, public tenders symbolize a big untapped market as a result of they require important assets. In France alone, there are greater than 200 platforms that host public tenders. And even when you determine alternatives, it requires fairly a little bit of time to place collectively a robust software.
That’s why many firms depend on freelancers or consulting corporations to outsource such a work. However Tengo believes that expertise may probably simplify your complete worth chain of public tenders.
“In France, the government spends half a billion euros every day — the government in a broad sense, including ministries, regions, departments, parapublic agencies, cities, etc.,” Tengo co-founder and CEO Hugues Renou advised TechCrunch. “In concrete terms, it’s roundabouts, school chairs or a training service.”
Shoppers first create a feed of public tenders by defining their standards. After that, Tengo scans all the general public portals that host tenders to search out new tenders that will match these standards.
Public tenders are normally extraordinarily exact to keep away from corruption or overspending. So firms typically find yourself studying by way of paperwork that may be as much as 50 pages lengthy and describe what the federal government is searching for.
One in all Tengo’s shopper is OpenClassrooms. “Tenders for training courses are published every day. However, they are only interested in training courses that are 100% online,” Renou stated. As a substitute of parsing by way of paperwork, Tengo identifies this aspect mechanically, in addition to 40 different standards.
As you might have guessed, Tengo makes use of synthetic intelligence to research the data contained in these paperwork. It could spotlight key elements but in addition reference necessary pages.
Like many fashionable software-as-a-service instruments, Tengo additionally acts because the central repository for all issues associated to public tenders. Firms get an summary of all of the functions which can be at present in progress. Staff can add feedback and share a young with one other staff member. Tengo clients can even obtain alerts when a young is about to run out and get renewed.
And when it’s time to submit an software, Tengo has built-in AI integrations to generate paperwork. I’m positive many firms are utilizing ChatGPT or one other LLM-powered chat assistant to reply public tenders already. However with Tengo’s integration, you don’t have to modify to a different service.
Finally, Tengo hopes that a number of Tengo clients will be capable of collaborate and supply a joint software to a public tender. “The government encourages SMEs to bid for public contracts, because they have a level of expertise that big companies don’t, but also because it’s a way to use public money to fund many more companies in the economy,” Renou stated.
The startup, which was based final yr, continues to be in its early days because it has solely attracted dozens of shoppers. However a few of its first shoppers embody OpenClassrooms, Citron, Theodo and Carrefour Professional. Now, let’s see if it will possibly flip this product work right into a profitable enterprise as there are greater than 40,000 firms that reply to public tenders in France.
