Hivebuy

Overview

Hivebuy is an AI purchasing platform for mid-sized and enterprise companies. It covers the full indirect procurement cycle: requisition, supplier comparison, approval, ordering, invoicing and reporting. The defining idea is that buying should happen through chat in tools people already use. That means Microsoft Teams, Slack or the Hivebuy app rather than a procurement system nobody wants to learn. Seventeen AI agents split the work across three domains. The platform connects straight into existing ERP systems. It serves purchasing, finance, IT and management functions across retail, manufacturing, services, logistics, healthcare and decentralised SMBs.

Challenges

Indirect purchasing is the daily buying of goods and services that sit outside the core product. It's where mid-sized companies quietly lose money and time. The process is scattered across email threads, spreadsheets, supplier portals and an ERP nobody outside finance enjoys using. An employee who needs something has to work out which system to use. Then which fields to fill in. Then who approves it and against which budget. Most of them get it wrong because they only do this a few times a year. Procurement teams then spend their days chasing incomplete requests. They compare quotes by hand and code invoices manually. That leaves no room for the supplier negotiation and category strategy that actually produces savings. Approval routing is a particular drag. Who can sign off depends on department, budget, product category and precedent. Working that out by hand adds days to a request. Meanwhile the business has no live view of committed spend. Budget conversations happen after the fact from exported spreadsheets. Traditional procurement suites answer this with process rigour. But they demand training, change management and a long IT project. That's exactly why so many mid-sized companies never finish rolling them out.

Solution highlights

Hivebuy removes the learning curve by putting the whole requisition into a conversation. An employee describes what they need in Teams, Slack or the app. An AI intake agent asks the right follow-up questions. It recognises the requirement, classifies it and fills in each field automatically. A commercial agent then compares thousands of offers across integrated online stores, internal catalogues and framework agreements in seconds. It generates options and picks the strongest. The company reports this saves up to 20% per order. Approval routing is handled by AI that works out who is entitled to approve. It reads department, budget, product group and history. Requests don't sit waiting for someone to chase them. On the finance side invoices are read automatically, matched against purchase orders and coded correctly. That gives no-touch invoice processing. Savings, analytics and compliance agents work alongside. A back-office group handles data enrichment, document parsing and user questions. It resolves most enquiries without a human. All of it flows into the customer's existing ERP through direct integrations with SAP Business One, S/4 HANA and ECC, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, DATEV and d.Velop. Live budgets and real-time reporting arrive without an IT project.

Key Features

• Chat-based ordering through Microsoft Teams, Slack or the Hivebuy app with no training
• AI intake agent that questions, classifies and auto-fills each requisition field
• Commercial agent comparing thousands of offers across stores, catalogues and framework agreements
• Automated approval routing based on department, budget, product group and history
• Invoice agent giving no-touch reading, purchase-order matching and coding
• Savings, analytics, compliance and accounting agents across the finance workflow
• Back-office agents for data enrichment, document parsing and user support
• Contract and catalogue management agents
• Direct ERP integration with SAP Business One, S/4 HANA and ECC
• Further integrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, DATEV and d.Velop
• Live budget transparency and real-time reporting
• Role-matched views for purchasing, finance, IT, budget owners and management

Technology Stack

AI agent architecture spanning seventeen agents across requisition, finance and back-office domains. Conversational interfaces in Microsoft Teams, Slack and a dedicated web and mobile app. Offer aggregation across integrated B2B stores, internal catalogues and framework agreements. Document and invoice parsing with purchase-order matching. Rules-plus-AI approval routing. ERP integrations with SAP Business One, SAP S/4 HANA, SAP ECC, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, DATEV and d.Velop. Analytics and reporting layer. ISO-certified security posture.

Outcomes

Hivebuy publishes concrete operating figures across its three agent domains. In requisition seven agents handle the flow from intake to approved purchase order. 86% of that process is fully automated. Median request-to-approval time is 42 seconds. That's a step change from a process that traditionally takes days. In finance five agents delivered €186K of savings year-to-date in 2026 with a 94% automatic invoice matching rate. In the back office five agents resolve 87% of enquiries without human involvement and have improved data quality by 34%. Customers report 60% time saved on enquiries, 100% budget transparency through live auditing and a positive ROI within 3.4 months. The commercial agent saves up to 20% per order. The customer base spans well-known mid-market and enterprise names including MediaMarkt, Saturn, Securitas, igus, MED-EL, EOS Group, NFON, Kölln, rebuy, Tennis-Point, BÜFA and DSC Arminia Bielefeld.