London-based Stotles is revolutionising public sector procurement with an end-to-end AI platform that helps private sector suppliers navigate the complex world of government contracts, turning what many consider “too difficult” into a strategic growth opportunity worth trillions globally.
Stotles Key Takeaways
Series A Momentum: Stotles raised $13 million in May 2025 led by Headline and Acton Capital, bringing total funding to $21.6 million.
AI-Powered End-to-End Platform: The only comprehensive AI platform covering the complete government sales lifecycle, delivering 4x pipeline growth and 2x win rate improvements.
Strong Enterprise Traction: Over 1,000 businesses use Stotles, including Amazon Business and Salesforce, winning over £500 million in public sector contracts.
Perfect Market Timing: The convergence of government efficiency initiatives with £400 billion UK and $13 trillion global public procurement spending creates ideal conditions for Stotles.
What is Stotles?
Stotles is an AI-powered sales enablement platform designed specifically to help private sector businesses identify, qualify, and win contracts with public sector organisations. The company’s name, derived from “specere” (Latin for “to look at”), reflects its mission to provide unprecedented visibility into the £400 billion UK public sector market and the $13 trillion global government procurement ecosystem.
What distinguishes Stotles from traditional tender tracking tools is its comprehensive, AI-native approach. The platform uses artificial intelligence to:
- Analyse millions of government data points.
- Identify early buying signals.
- Map competitor and partner relationships.
- Qualify opportunities and generate first drafts of proposals.
Since its founding in 2020, Stotles has evolved into “the operating system for doing business with government.” The platform now supports over 1,000 businesses and has helped users identify and win contracts worth over £500 million, serving major enterprises including:
- Amazon Business
- Salesforce
- Vodafone
- Snowflake
- SAP
- Palo Alto Networks
- Zoom
The Stotles Founders: MBA Classmates Who Saw Opportunity in Complexity
Stotles was founded by three London Business School MBA classmates who bonded over a shared frustration: the unnecessary complexity of selling to government. John Witt, Taj Kamranpour, and Carsten Schaltz met during their MBA programme (2017-2019).
John Witt: CEO and Visionary
John Witt serves as Co-Founder and CEO. His background includes work with organisations like Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum. His vision for Stotles is centered on the fundamental belief that the public sector shouldn’t be written off as “too difficult.”
Taj Kamranpour: COO and Operations Architect
Taj Kamranpour serves as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. His operational expertise has been crucial in building the processes and systems needed to scale the platform. He emphasizes that successful suppliers “approach government efficiency strategies and entrenched incumbent relationships with clarity, focus and a plan.”
Carsten Schaltz: CPO and Product Leader
Carsten Schaltz serves as Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer. Also bringing a background from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), his focus on user experience and workflow integration helped transform Stotles from a data aggregation tool to a comprehensive platform.
The Founding Story
The founders identified a fundamental market opportunity: public sector spending was massive and growing, but the tools available to access this market were underdeveloped. They incorporated Stotles in late 2019, spent nine months in private beta, and launched in October 2020 with their first funding round.
How Stotles Works: The Four-Pillar Approach
Stotles has organized its platform around four core functions that mirror the public sector sales workflow:
-
Create Strategy
This pillar helps businesses understand their market position by allowing users to:
- Pinpoint exactly which government buyers purchase their products/services.
- Map competitors and identify contract holders with target buyers.
- Identify potential partners for joint bids or subcontracting.
- Analyse buyers’ procurement histories to understand spending patterns and decision cycles.
-
Build Pipeline
Focuses on early engagement before formal tenders are published. Stotles’ AI identifies early buying signals, including:
- Expiring contracts that will need to be retendered.
- Budget allocations and policy announcements indicating planned purchases.
- Freedom of Information (FOI) request patterns suggesting emerging needs.
- Meeting minutes mentioning procurement intentions.
-
Track Tenders
Aggregates formally published tenders from hundreds of sources (Find a Tender, TED, OJEU, etc.) into a single, centralized feed.
- AI scores each opportunity based on relevance to the specific business.
- Users receive automated alerts via email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.
- Provides automatically summarized notice descriptions that surface key information.
-
Win Bids
Provides tools for the actual bidding process:
- AI Bid Qualification: Rapid bid/no-bid recommendation to prevent wasting resources on unlikely opportunities.
- Collaborative Bid Management: Teams can assign opportunities, track progress, and coordinate through in-app commenting.
- AI Proposal Generation: Can auto-generate first drafts by pulling relevant content from previous submissions and gathered intelligence.
- Workflow Integration: Integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
The AI Revolution: Platform Relaunch in May 2025
On May 6th, 2025, Stotles relaunched its platform as “the only AI-powered tool on the market designed to enhance decision-making at every stage of the sales cycle.” The relaunch introduced advanced AI capabilities that:
- Identify patterns in procurement behavior and predict which buyers are likely to make purchases.
- Personalize the user experience based on the supplier’s specific offerings and past behavior.
- Provide intelligent bid qualification by comparing tender requirements against the supplier’s capabilities.
- Generate first-draft proposals by assembling relevant content from the supplier’s previous work.
Stotles Funding: Building Momentum Towards Market Leadership
Stotles has raised a total of approximately $21.6 million across five funding rounds.
Seed Funding (2020)
In October 2020, Stotles raised £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in seed funding led by Speedinvest, with participation from 7percent Ventures, FJ Labs, and high-profile angel investors.
Growth Funding (2022)
In June 2022, Stotles secured £6.1 million (€7.2 million) in additional funding led by Headline, with participation from Form Ventures, GTMfund, and others.
Series A (May 2025)
In May 2025, Stotles announced its Series A round of $13 million (£9.6 million, €11.5 million), co-led by Headline and Acton Capital, with participation from returning investors Form Ventures and Seedcamp.
- Growth Metrics: Since the seed round, Stotles multiplied its customer base, with customers reporting 4x qualified pipeline growth and more than double their public sector contract win rates.
- Use of Funds: Primarily for expansion into the US market and continuing development of the AI platform.
Investor Perspectives
Investors emphasized the massive, under-optimized nature of the procurement sector:
- Christian Miele (Headline): “Procurement is the beating heart of that relationship. Yet it remains massive, under-optimised, and lacking transparency.”
- Julius Lühr (Acton Capital): “Stotles’ team obsesses about the nuances of the industry and has created the definitive suite of products to help companies sell effectively to the public sector.”
Market Timing: The Government Efficiency Movement
Stotles’ Series A funding coincides with a “new era of government efficiency,” as governments worldwide focus on procurement efficiency and cost-cutting.
- UK Context: Policies aimed at cutting government operational costs, leading to more rigorous procurement processes.
- US Context: Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, driving attention to cost-cutting.
This environment makes Stotles valuable by helping suppliers work more efficiently and focus resources on winnable contracts.
Customer Impact: Real-World Results
The platform has demonstrated measurable impact across diverse organizations:
- Freshworks UKI: Reported a 29x ROI, with teams now able to anticipate the public sector and engage earlier.
- Social enterprise Beam: Used Stotles to discover and win a £100,000 tender to support re-housing Afghan families in London, a contract they would never have found manually.
Overall impact metrics:
- Supported over 1,000 businesses.
- Helped users identify and win contracts worth over £500 million.
- Customers report 4x growth in their qualified pipeline.
- Win rates have more than doubled.
Competitive Position and Market Landscape
Stotles operates in the GovTech sector, specifically the B2G (business-to-government) sales enablement niche, a market traditionally split between:
- Traditional Tender Trackers (basic aggregation).
- Market Intelligence Platforms (general data).
- Point Solutions (specialized tools like bid writing).
- Consulting Services (manual, expensive).
Stotles’ competitive advantage:
- It is the first comprehensive, end-to-end platform designed for the entire government sales lifecycle.
- AI-native architecture provides superior predictive capabilities and automation.
- Freemium model makes it accessible to both small and large suppliers.
- Integration with tools like Salesforce and Slack reduces adoption friction.
Geographic Expansion: Entering the US Market
A significant portion of the Series A funding is earmarked for expansion into the United States, a market totaling several trillion dollars annually.
- Opportunities: Massive addressable market potential; complex, multi-layered US government structure creates pain points Stotles can solve.
- Challenges: Different regulatory frameworks; established local competitors; need for adaptation of platform and go-to-market approach.
Company Culture and Team Growth
- Stotles has grown from three co-founders to approximately 42 employees.
- Culture: Revolves around a rejection of defeatism, execution intensity, product intensity, and a mission-driven approach to improve how government and business work together.
The Road Ahead: Strategic Priorities and Challenges
Key focus areas for Stotles include:
- US Market Penetration: Building local teams and infrastructure to scale successfully in the complex US market.
- AI Capabilities Enhancement: Investing in more sophisticated predictive analytics and proposal generation.
- Platform Expansion: Moving into adjacent areas like contract management, supplier network development, and additional geographies.
- Competition & Regulatory Navigation: Maintaining technological leadership while ensuring compliance with evolving, multi-jurisdictional procurement regulations.
Conclusion: Building the Operating System for Government Commerce
Stotles represents a rare combination: a massive market opportunity, a comprehensive solution to genuine pain points, strong execution by experienced founders, and perfect timing.
The company’s vision of becoming “the operating system for doing business with government” is ambitious but increasingly plausible. With proven results, strong backing, and AI-powered capabilities spanning the entire sales cycle, Stotles has established a strong foundation.
As CEO John Witt noted, the founders’ shared frustration with inefficient procurement “led us to this mission: to improve how the world’s largest purchasing organisation operates, with an impact that spans from government departments to everyday taxpayers.” The coming years will confirm Stotles’ position as the definitive platform for government procurement in the digital age.
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