H&Z invests in Elevatry
Germany’s largest pre-seed round in software in 2026, with Bayern Kapital, H&Z and business angels. The AI platform for strategic procurement has been live since 28 September.
Munich, 15 October 2026. Elevatry GmbH has completed a pre-seed funding round of three million euros. Participants include Bayern Kapital, management consultancy H&Z, and several business angels, including Jan Henner-Theißen, Martin Berr-Sorokin, Mike Simon, Markus Ehrle, Andreas Junck and Alexander Bruehl. Elevatry’s agentic AI platform for strategic procurement went live on 28 September 2026.
PROCUREMENT’S GREATEST PROFIT LEVER IS UNDERDEVELOPED
Strategic procurement has a substantial influence on costs, quality, resilience, and compliance across the entire procurement spend. The potential is considerable: for a company with revenue of one billion euros and procurement spend of 500 million euros, a ten per cent improvement could mean an additional 50 million euros in profit. At a margin of five per cent, this would be equivalent to doubling revenue to two billion euros.
In practice, procurement teams often only have the capacity to actively manage a proportion of their suppliers and categories, leaving much of this potential untapped. Much of the work in strategic procurement has not been scalable to date, as it involves analytical and intellectually demanding tasks.
COMPANIONS TAKE ON COMPLEX, KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE TASKS
Elevatry addresses this capacity gap. The platform’s Companions, including Category Strategist, Negotiation Coach and Risk & Integrity Manager, undertake analytical work, research and scenario assessments throughout the source-to-contract process. This ranges from requirements analysis through sourcing strategy, tendering and supplier selection to should-cost analysis, negotiation, contracts and performance monitoring. The Companions bring leading industry- and category-specific expertise in both breadth and depth.
Elevatry sees itself as a System of Initiative rather than a System of Record. The platform plans proactively, prioritises according to impact in euros, and prepares proposals. Decisions are made by the team. Customers configure autonomy levels, approvals, and data sovereignty themselves, using an open multi-LLM architecture. Each result contributes to a continually improved knowledge layer that belongs exclusively to the customer.
“Strategic procurement is one of the biggest profit levers in a company. So far, it has only been used where capacity and the relevant knowledge are available,” says Heiko Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Elevatry. “Our Companions take on complex thinking tasks and execute work to the highest standard. This allows procurement teams to apply the methods of their best category managers to every category. Our investors bring together capital, exclusive procurement expertise, and market access. From now on, we will prove our impact with customers.”
“Elevatry combines a highly experienced founding team with a clear vision for the future of strategic procurement. Its AI-native platform addresses considerable potential for efficiency and value creation in companies, delivering immediately understandable customer benefits through the intelligent use of procurement knowledge and data. At the same time, the company operates in an attractive, rapidly growing market for AI-supported procurement software. We look forward to supporting the team on its continued growth journey alongside a strong consortium of business angels,” says Monika Steger, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital.
“We have supported Elevatry with strong conviction since its foundation. Agentic AI will fundamentally change procurement by intelligently automating recurring knowledge work and effectively supporting decision-making,” say Harald Enz and Jonas Harm, Managing Partners at H&Z. “Elevatry brings together leading AI technology and deep procurement domain knowledge in a unique combination. For us, it is clear: our customers expect us not only to observe innovation, but to actively shape it and translate it into tangible benefits. That is why we are investing in Elevatry and will closely support the company’s growth as a strategic partner.”
“I invested because this is a team with decades of procurement experience building exactly the product that is missing from the market. In addition, Heiko Schwarz (riskmethods) and Christian Ruck (Orpheus) are highly successful serial entrepreneurs who are on board,” says Alexander Bruehl of SaaS Garage, who is participating as a business angel. “Many AI offerings automate ordering processes. Elevatry focuses on procurement spend, which is where the greatest profit lever lies.”
FUNDING FOR THE PLATFORM, TEAM AND MARKET ENTRY
Elevatry will use the funds to further develop the platform and its portfolio of Companions, and to implement the accompanying go-to-market activities. The team will therefore expand, particularly in engineering, AI, marketing, and customer support. The initial focus is market entry in the DACH region and the EU, followed by international expansion focused on North America in the medium term. The law firm WIPIT Partnerschaft mbB advises the company, including on this funding round.
FOUNDING TEAM WITH EXPERIENCE IN PROCUREMENT AND ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
Three founders are behind Elevatry. Heiko Schwarz (CEO) brings around 25 years of experience in strategic procurement and procurement software. He previously founded riskmethods, which was acquired by Sphera. Christian Ruck (Chief Product Officer & Operations) was an Associate Partner at McKinsey and COO of procurement SaaS provider Orpheus, which was sold to McKinsey. As AI Lead, Tizian Ruck is responsible for the platform’s technical development.
ABOUT ELEVATRY
Elevatry is the AI platform for strategic procurement. Its Companions, including Category Strategist, Negotiation Coach, and Risk & Integrity Manager, take on routine analytical work throughout the source-to-contract process, drawing on deep procurement expertise and industry- and category-specific knowledge. As a System of Initiative, the platform plans proactively, prioritises according to impact (€) and prepares proposals, while decisions are made by the team. Customers configure autonomy levels, approvals, and data sovereignty themselves, using an open multi-LLM architecture. Each result contributes to a knowledge layer that belongs exclusively to the customer. Elevatry was founded in 2026 by Heiko Schwarz, Christian Ruck, and Tizian Ruck and is based near Munich. More information at elevatry.ai.
ABOUT BAYERN KAPITAL
Bayern Kapital is one of the most experienced and financially strong venture capital investors in the DACH region. With around 1.3 billion euros in assets under management, over 120 active portfolio companies, and investments of up to 50 million euros per company, Bayern Kapital is one of the few investors in the market offering funding from pre-seed through to global growth and scale-up rounds from a single source. As a public venture capital investor, Bayern Kapital invests in consortia with leading national and international venture capital funds, supporting technology start-ups and scale-ups as a reliable anchor investor across multiple funding rounds.
Since 1995, Bayern Kapital has financed around 390 start-ups and scale-ups with more than 675 million euros of its own equity capital in areas including deep tech, life sciences, AI, climate tech, SaaS, new space, and quantum technology. Its numerous success stories from Bavaria include EGYM, planqc, SimScale, Tubulis, Quantum Systems, and OroraTech. More information at bayernkapital.de.
ABOUT H&Z
The H&Z Group brings together leading European management consultancies with a clear focus on measurable impact. More than 850 employees at 24 international locations help medium-sized businesses and large corporations strengthen their competitiveness over the long term. With specialists in procurement, performance, digital transformation, restructuring and sales, H&Z translates strategic objectives into concrete results across the entire value chain.
