Llamasoft, the Ann Arbor, MI-based supply-chain software company, announced Tuesday that it has closed a Series B round valued at $50 million. Goldman Sachs is the round’s sole investor, and it will take a seat on Llamasoft’s board as part of the deal.
Toby Brzoznowski, co-founder and executive vice president of Llamasoft, says the company has grown at a breakneck pace.
“For the past four or five years, we’ve averaged 60 percent growth annually,” he says, adding that for the past three years, Llamasoft has also landed on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list, which tracks high-growth tech companies. “In the supply chain space, we’re the only company on the list.”
Brzoznowski says Llamasoft plans to use the new investment to further innovate its existing software. Though he declined to go into detail, he says the new products will address the changing needs of larger customers. Llamasoft’s roster of clients includes massive corporations like Kellogg’s, Ford, and Wal-Mart.
“As we get more of a blue chip customer base, we recognize that they need additional supply chain solutions, and we think we’re uniquely positioned to create them,” Brzoznowski says. “But we need resources and talent to go at the pace they’re looking for.”
Llamasoft plans to add staff at its offices in Michigan, the United Kingdom, and China, and expand into Japan and continental Europe. The company currently has about 300 employees.
“We hired 70 people last year, and that pace will continue,” Brzoznowski says. “We’re actively hiring developer talent to build out the technology we’ve already prototyped.” He says the company expects to eventually acquire smaller software development firms, particularly overseas.
Llamasoft also plans to develop products for “tangential markets” connected to the supply chain sector, he says, particularly in the realms of inventory planning and supply chain intelligence.
“That’s what we want to go after hard,” he adds. “Some of the analytics we’ve built up allow us to come to market with robust, flexible solutions. We’ve got some differentiating technology.”
