How SpendHQ & Sligo AI Will Power Agentic Procurement

SpendHQ is regarded by many as a leader in enterprise spend intelligence and procurement performance intelligence. It is powering its resource with the acquisition of Sligo AI – which is empowering Agentic Enterprise Procurement (AEP) infrastructure.

The acquisition positions SpendHQ to deliver configurable agentic AI capabilities in enterprise procurement, enabling systems that can execute work across entire procurement workflows, not just generate insights.

Bridging the gap between data and security

Procurement teams are currently caught in a high-stakes balancing act, forced to juggle cost savings and ESG compliance against shrinking headcounts and tighter deadlines. While AI is often touted as the ultimate fix, adoption has stalled because large enterprises cannot risk scaling on messy data or fragile security models. This partnership bridges that gap, providing a clear path for AI to operate effectively within strict data sovereignty constraints.

“The real problem in enterprise procurement has always been complexity with data, systems, and how organisations operate across both,” says Tom Beaty, Founder and Chairman, SpendHQ.

“What this brings together is the ability for organisations, particularly those in highly regulated industries, like financial services, healthcare, defence and critical infrastructure, to run AI in a way that fits their environment, their requirements and the way they already work.”

The strength of any AI is dictated by the quality of its input, which is why SpendHQ focused on the data problem first. By leveraging over US$10tn in analysed and categorised spend data, the platform offers a structured and trusted foundation that most tools simply lack.

This purpose-built environment enables native AI to drive genuine reasoning and reliable insights, turning raw information into a competitive advantage.

Compliance-first infrastructure for global enterprises

Even the best data is useless if the system cannot pass a security audit. Sligo AI was built by practitioners who understand that enterprise AI must align with existing technical and compliance requirements. Their infrastructure allows for a seamless deployment that respects data sovereignty, ensuring that AI systems are not just powerful, but also fully compliant with the rigorous standards of modern corporate IT.

By merging a massive, verified data set with a secure deployment framework, this deal finally gives procurement leaders the "all-in-one" AI solution they have been waiting for.

“Agentic AI is only as good as the data it operates on,” adds Scott Macfee, CEO, SpendHQ. “We’ve spent years building a trusted data foundation. Now with Sligo AI, we’re accelerating the path from insight to value, helping teams move faster and deliver even more strategic impact.”

With the addition of the Sligo AI platform, SpendHQ can now deploy custom agentic solutions in multiple ways, depending on a company’s requirements, such as:

• Inside a customer’s own cloud environment
• A managed deployment with dedicated infrastructure
• Embedded into existing enterprise systems through APIs

From co-pilots to autonomous platforms

The platform functions as a seamless bridge between critical enterprise tools, integrating directly with ERP systems, procurement software, contract management platforms and data warehouses. By automating the creation of sourcing strategies, supplier evaluations and contract analyses, it eliminates the intensive manual labour that traditionally slows down procurement cycles.

As a cornerstone of the acquisition, Sligo AI Founder and CEO Matt McCarrick has been named Chief AI Officer at SpendHQ. He will continue to oversee the Sligo AI platform and its service lines, which have been rebranded and launched commercially as SpendHQ Solutions.

The entire Sligo AI team is also joining the SpendHQ fold, focusing their expertise on building and deploying custom Agentic Solutions specifically designed for large-scale enterprises navigating complex technical and regulatory landscapes.

“We built Sligo AI with a focus on making AI work inside the constraints enterprises actually operate under,” says Matt McCarrick, CAIO, SpendHQ.

“Joining SpendHQ gives us the foundation, resources and scale to bring this capability to more procurement organisations than we could on our own.”

The acquisition follows SpendHQ’s initial investment in Sligo AI in August 2025. Since then, the two companies have worked together to integrate their teams, unify their platforms and validate the combined solution capabilities with their respective customers.

“SpendHQ has been a foundational part of how we manage procurement intelligence,” adds Tony Brita, Director Strategic Sourcing, Compass Group.

“Adding AI that understands our data and workflows directly into the platform changes how quickly we can move.”

“We made a commitment to our CEO that we would build a better-than-world-class procurement team, one where humans are empowered to focus on strategy while AI agents take on analytics and operational activities at scale,” added Michael DeWitt, Chief Procurement Officer, QXO, Inc. “Sligo AI has enabled our team to do just that – focus on strategy while agents handle execution.”

Broadly, many companies still struggle to move beyond limited use cases for AI in procurement.

“Combining enterprise-ready deployment options with structured procurement data opens up use cases that weren’t previously possible,” said Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner and Digital Futurist, Kearney.

“This acquisition will send shockwaves through the ProcureTech market. It represents an inflection point where the industry moves from co-pilots to platforms.”

Sligo AI's entire agentic infrastructure is natively integrated with SpendHQ's platform and available to SpendHQ customers today.