AI Startup Forgent Raises €4.3M to Transform Public Procurement
Forgent's founders: Dr. Timo Kuschma, Dr. Leonard Wossnig, and Erik Heinelt - © Jan Schoelzel
Berlin-based Forgent has secured €4.3 million in pre-seed funding led by Cherry Ventures to tackle one of Europe's most bureaucratic challenges: public procurement. The startup's AI platform promises to unlock access to the continent's €2 trillion government contracting market.
According to information from Cherry Ventures, Europe's public procurement system suffers from a critical market failure. Despite governments spending €2 trillion annually, 40% of tenders receive one or zero bids. The culprit isn't lack of capable companies, but administrative complexity that excludes potential bidders.
Current tender applications cost upwards of €80,000 and require weeks navigating hundreds of requirements across 30+ bureaucratic documents. For many companies, these hurdles make participation economically unfeasible regardless of their solution quality.
Forgent's founders – Erik Heinelt, Dr. Leonard Wossnig, and Dr. Timo Kuschma – built their platform to extract precise requirements from complex government documents. The system identifies relevant opportunities, flags compliance issues, and generates compliant applications while maintaining the precision government contracts demand.
"We see a generational opportunity to rebuild how businesses engage with governments," said CEO Erik Heinelt. "Public institutions will gain access to better solutions while economic participation expands across the innovation ecosystem."
The timing appears strategic. European governments are deploying unprecedented capital in infrastructure and defense spending, just as AI capabilities reach the precision required for bureaucratic document processing.
Cherry Ventures notes that Forgent's platform fundamentally changes procurement economics. Companies no longer need specialized legal and procurement teams for each application, allowing the same resources to pursue multiple opportunities simultaneously.
The investment reflects Cherry Ventures' thesis of backing founders who attack massive, underserved markets with breakthrough technology. Public procurement represents 14% of Europe's GDP – a market large enough to support generational companies while remaining underserved due to clear technical barriers.
Enhanced market participation benefits all stakeholders: governments access superior solutions at competitive prices, taxpayers benefit from improved outcomes, and innovation flows into public systems that shape everyday life.
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