Consentio, a software company specializing in developing digital automation solutions for fresh produce companies, is entering the United States. “Headquartered in Spain and having 12,000 customers globally, we are slowly building presence in the US,” says Andy Makeham, Head of Consentio USA.
Marketplace
The company offers a digital trading platform for fresh produce, operating across pc and phone and being fully mobile. The platform enables fresh produce companies to build a marketplace for selling and/or buying produce. One of Consentio’s customers, Latin Specialties in Dallas, has been using Consentio to build a marketplace and online catalog that retailers use to buy produce. Each retailer sees their version of the catalog with their pricing. “They used to receive sales orders by phone, fax, sms, etc., and had to manually type them into their ERP system. This is very slow, labor intensive, and error prone compared to orders being read electronically,” commented Makeham. All orders and communication with customers is now held in one place, the catalog is integrated into the ERP system, and the process is fully automated. “We now have one person doing the work of four pre-Consentio, and we are now taking orders 24/7,” said Jorge Vasquez, CEO of Latin Specialties.
Receiving orders
Just now being launched in the US is Magic Orders, a program solving the specific problem of fresh produce companies receiving orders manually with details embedded in the body of an email or attached as PDFs or spreadsheets. Magic Orders automates the process of typing in orders as it can read and validate different files and pass the order on to the company’s stock/ERP system. Emails containing orders are forwarded to a unique magic-order email address, and the program recognizes the retailer and its template, allowing orders to be automatically processed. “Typically, we are finding companies using Magic Orders are reducing their order processing costs by 50-75 percent as they simply need less people.” Magic Orders can read most order formats, including PDF, XLS, CSV, Text, EDI formats, and more.
Consentio has recently raised $5m to support US business expansion. Led by Mundi Ventures, an international Venture Capital fund that invests in the US, Europe, Israel, and Singapore. The round also saw participation from Hambro Perks, a London-headquartered international investment firm focused on investing in the private technology sector, and Label Investments, which specializes in the Agriculture sector and is very active in the United States and Mexico. Consentio saw order values traded through the platform triple in the last year and is on target to reach €1 billion in the next 12 months.
Contact:
Consentio
Andy Makeham
Tel: (+1) 714-803-4022
andym@consentio.co
Carlos Galvin
Tel: (+1) 919-785-8719
carlos@consentio.co