Tendos Receives 12 Million Euros for AI Automation in the Building Materials Industry

The Munich-based AI startup Tendos has closed a seed funding round totaling 12 million euros. The round was led by the international venture capital firm Insight Partners. Other investors include the founders of the unicorns Personio, Forto, Flix, and SumUp, as well as several entrepreneurs from the industry. Tendos develops AI agents that automate sales processes for building materials manufacturers. Its customers already include Wilo, Grundfos, Hansgrohe, Spelsberg, KSB, and Kermi. The company plans to use the capital to expand internationally and extend its platform to other areas of the industrial value chain.

Insight Partners Leads €12 Million Seed Financing Round

Tendos has closed a seed financing round totaling 12 million euros. The Munich-based software provider is developing an AI platform for manufacturers in the building materials and building services engineering industries.

The lead investor is Insight Partners, an internationally active investment firm focused on software and technology companies.

In addition to the fund, the founders of Personio, Forto, Flix, and SumUp are participating. They are joined by other founders and executives from the industry, including Stephan Tahy, former CEO of the plumbing manufacturer Duravit.

The participation of the unicorn founders takes the form of private investments. The companies mentioned are not listed as investors in the press release.

Tendos did not provide any details regarding the company’s valuation, the individual investment amounts, or any prior financing.

The startup plans to use the capital to drive its international expansion, develop additional AI applications, and tap into further customer segments within the building materials industry.

AI agents are intended to automate industrial sales

Tendos addresses a challenge that is widespread in the building materials industry and in technical sales.

Manufacturers receive numerous customer inquiries, requests for proposals, and specifications every day. These often contain complex technical requirements that must be cross-referenced with extensive product catalogs.

Sales teams must identify suitable products, check prices and availability, prepare quotes, and transfer information to various systems.

Many of these steps are still performed manually.

Especially for manufacturers with thousands of different products, processing individual inquiries can be correspondingly time-consuming.

Tendos aims to automate these processes using specialized AI agents.

The software processes incoming documents, identifies relevant product requirements, and assists in creating suitable quotes.

This is intended to enable sales representatives to handle more inquiries and free up additional time for customer consultation and closing deals.

From Request for Proposal to Order Entry

The platform covers several steps in the industrial sales process.

First, the AI agents can identify relevant requests for proposals and analyze incoming customer inquiries.

The software then extracts technical specifications, statements of work, and other documents.

The requirements contained therein are compared with the respective manufacturer’s product catalogs.

Based on this, Tendos creates draft quotes and supports further order processing.

The transfer of relevant information to existing CRM and ERP systems is also intended to be automated.

In doing so, the company is pursuing an approach in which AI agents take over entire workflows and integrate various software applications with one another.

According to the company, responsibility for technical decisions remains with the sales teams.

In particular, employees should still be able to intervene in cases of complex technical requirements or decisions that require specialized product expertise.

Specific details regarding the error rate of automated product assignment or the extent of necessary human approvals have not been disclosed.

Wilo, Grundfos, and Hansgrohe are among the customers

According to Tendos, the company has already secured several internationally active manufacturers as customers.

These include Wilo, Grundfos, Hansgrohe, Spelsberg, KSB, and Kermi.

These companies operate in sectors including pump technology, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and building services engineering.

Many of these manufacturers have extensive product portfolios and complex sales structures.

Processing technical customer inquiries therefore often requires a precise mapping of product features and requirements.

Tendos aims to simplify these processes through its AI platform.

According to the company, key sales processes at the aforementioned clients are already being handled via the software.

The press release does not specify how many individual users are using the platform or what percentage of the respective sales process has been automated.

Nor were details regarding the total number of client companies or annual recurring revenue disclosed.

Processes a quotation volume in the double-digit billions

An important indicator of the platform’s usage to date is the quote volume cited by Tendos.

According to the company, the software has so far processed quotes with a total value in the double-digit billions of euros.

This metric describes the value of the processed bids and tenders.

It corresponds neither to Tendos’ revenue nor to the actual order volume realized by its customers.

Nor can it be used to determine what proportion of the bids led to completed transactions.

However, the figure shows that the software is already being used in sales processes of significant economic scale.

For Tendos, the potential lies particularly in accelerating the processing of such transactions and increasing the number of inquiries that a sales team can handle with existing resources.

No specific, independently verified figures on time savings, productivity gains, or higher conversion rates were provided.

The Building Materials Industry as a Market for Specialized AI Applications

While numerous AI startups develop horizontal software solutions for various industries, Tendos focuses on specific processes within the building materials industry.

This approach is often referred to as “vertical AI.”

The applications are specifically developed to meet the requirements of a particular industry.

In Tendos’ case, this includes processing technical specifications, mapping complex product data, and integrating with existing sales and inventory management systems.

This specialization is intended to enable the applications to handle industry-specific tasks more effectively than general-purpose AI applications.

In technical sales in particular, the correct interpretation of product specifications plays a crucial role.

Errors in component selection or in the preparation of quotes can lead to additional costs and damage the customer relationship.

Tendos therefore relies on combining automated document processing with manufacturers’ existing product and process data.

Founder Christian Sedlmeier aims to ease the burden on sales teams

Co-founder and CEO Christian Sedlmeier sees a large market for AI-powered automation in the building materials industry.

Manufacturers’ sales representatives possess extensive technical knowledge and well-established customer relationships.

At the same time, repetitive administrative tasks take up a significant portion of their work time.

Tendos aims to automate these tasks and make better use of existing expertise for consulting and sales.

For manufacturers, this could result in a particular economic advantage if quotes can be prepared more quickly and more customer inquiries can be processed within the same amount of time.

Insight Partners also sees significant potential in the industry.

Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners, points out the relatively limited use of modern AI technologies in many industrial sales processes to date.

The investor particularly highlights the founding team’s understanding of products and processes.

International Expansion and Additional Use Cases

With the new funding, Tendos aims to expand its existing market presence.

The focus has so far been on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In the future, the company plans to increasingly acquire international customers.

The company did not disclose which countries will be targeted first or how many additional employees will be hired.

At the same time, Tendos plans to expand the functionality of its software.

The AI agents are expected to take on additional tasks within sales and support further processes along the value chain.

In the long term, this could allow the platform to evolve beyond its current automation of requests for proposals, quotes, and orders.

No specific new products or launch dates have been announced yet.

Tendos is banking on industry-specific AI as a growth driver

With seed funding of 12 million euros, Tendos is receiving additional resources to expand its position in the market for industrial AI applications.

The investment by Insight Partners and several experienced technology founders underscores investor interest in specialized AI solutions for traditional industries.

With clients such as Wilo, Grundfos, and Hansgrohe, the Munich-based startup already has a track record with internationally active manufacturers.

The volume of orders processed—which the company reports is in the double-digit billions—indicates extensive use within existing sales processes.

For the next phase of development, it will be crucial whether Tendos can establish its software with additional manufacturers, reliably implement the automation of further processes, and develop a sustainably growing business model based on its current usage.