15. VendorPanel

Revenue: $10 million
Growth: 41.51%
Founder: James Leathem
Head office: Melbourne, VIC
Year founded: 2008
Employees: 74
Industry: Software and internet
Website: vendorpanel.com

How VendorPanel started

James Leathem had built up experience in the procurement space when he hatched his idea for VendorPanel, but the market just wasn’t ready for an all-in-one platform bringing it out of businesses’ backrooms into playing a much larger strategic role.

Finding the right market fit for the ambitious idea wasn’t straightforward. Over five years, VendorPanel trialled five brands and six products before realising its issue: it was playing too small.

Now pitching its platform as a catalyst for positive change rather than an efficiency, savings or risk reduction, its first customer ended up being an entire sector of 155 government organisations.

Growth

Next it expanded across the country, then state government, utilities, infrastructure, health education, universities and corporates.

Offering a data-driven approach to social procurement, VendorPanel can offer customers a significant positive impact on local economic development and community outcomes, validated with multiple awards.

Now its platform is used by more than 350 enterprise customers representing 1000 buying organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

Where to next

VendorPanel’s customers currently procure around $8 billion a year through the platform. In two years it wants to take that number to $20 billion.

To get there, it will focus on growing in Australia, the US and the UK.

Back to The Smart50 Awards 2023.