Introducing the Supply Chain Series: Mapping a €42Bn market on the move

By Ida Kuijken and Alexandra de Klerk, Fortino Capital

The software that powers our global supply chains is entering a new phase. Whilst already significant as a €42Bn market within enterprise tech, the supply chain software market is forecasted to continue to grow at a 20% CAGR, driven by rising complexity, disruption, and the need for speed and visibility.

At Fortino, we regularly speak with founders building the tools that keep commerce moving: From route optimisation engines to warehouse orchestration, from supply chain planning to AI-powered visibility platforms. Yet the market itself remains hard to navigate. Sub-sectors are loosely defined and overlapping, positioning is inconsistent, and there is limited structured insight into the European landscape.

With the Supply Chain Series, we want to help shine a light on this vertical and convey our excitement for a fast-evolving and crucial segment within B2B SaaS. This series aims to decode the structure, trends, and opportunities across the supply chain software landscape, with a practical lens for founders, operators, and investors. We aim to provide our view on the landscape, with a focus on trends and companies across the Benelux and broader European region.

Why now

Supply chains are under pressure. Margin compression, sustainability mandates, macroeconomic instability, increasing complexity of global supply chains and rising expectations around real-time data or predictability improvements through AI are forcing operators to rethink their tech stacks. This is creating strong momentum for software across sourcing, planning, execution, fulfilment, shipping and compliance.

The global supply chain software market is expected to grow from €42Bn today to €74Bn by 2028. Many sub-sectors are growing at high double-digit rates. The Benelux, as one of Europe’s logistics hubs, is home to dozens of promising companies that are ready to scale or consolidate.

How we are structuring the market

The supply chain software market is large with different interconnected subsegments. A widely adopted framework to structure the market is the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model, which covers all customer interactions from order entry to paid invoice, as well as all physical material flows from the supplier’s supplier to the customer’s customer. SCOR breaks the supply chain into five core processes: Planning, sourcing, manufacturing, delivery, and returns. In practice, supply chains are rarely linear, they instead function as networked, or circular systems. SCOR visualizes this intuitively in below figure, where supply chain orchestration connects demand, supply, synchronization and regeneration as two interconnected infinity loops.

It is important to keep in mind that for instance activities such as planning and sourcing occur throughout the cycle, multiple execution stages may overlap, and reverse logistics creates a loop that feeds back to the start of the supply chain. Software is closely interconnected in each of these phases. However, for simplicity, we subsegment the market linearly, using a seven-part segmentation that reflects the core layers of the supply chain.

Each segment has distinct buyer profiles, macroeconomic trends, investment patterns, and maturity levels:

We group the landscape into three main domains: Planning and sourcing, execution and fulfilment, and compliance.

1. Planning & sourcing

Planning and sourcing sit upstream, shaping the supply chain before execution. This subsegment is a €15.5Bn market, forecasted to grow by 18%, growing slightly below the overall supply chain software market.

This subsegment includes:

• Sourcing & supplier collaboration → Platforms for procurement, onboarding, spend management, and supplier performance. These workflows remain highly manual in many organizations, despite rising pressure from inflation, ESG demands, and supply chain shocks.
• Planning & visibility tools → Help balance demand and supply through forecasting, inventory optimization, and real-time insights. Platforms are shifting from static models to dynamic, scenario-based environments, often enriched with external data streams.

We believe AI will be a gamechanger for planning and visibility, resulting in smarter, faster, and more adaptable planning decisions with reduced human intervention. Incorporating effective gen-AI and predictive analytics can support 15–25% price uplifts and >120% net retention for leading vendors.

2. Execution & fulfilment

Execution and fulfilment manage the operational core of supply chains and represent the largest subsegment of the market, representing a €20.9Bn market, growing slightly above market by 21%:

• Production & warehouse orchestration platforms → Coordinate order flows, sites, and systems to improve throughput and reduce operational inefficiencies.
• Reverse logistics & circularity → Systems supporting returns, reusable materials, and waste reduction, improving traceability and ESG compliance.
• Transportation Software → TMS, LMS, and fleet management platforms enabling route optimization, exception tracking, and cost control.
• Freight Forwarding & Shipping Tech → Digitizes one of the most fragmented and paper-heavy processes in global logistics, improving speed and reliability.

AI is driving intelligent routing, dispatch optimisation, and predictive planning. We expect execution layers to exceed 50% of total supply chain software spend in the coming years, accelerated by M&A-driven consolidation and growing omnichannel fulfilment needs.

3. Compliance & risk

Compliance and risk management are becoming embedded across procurement and logistics workflows:

• ESG Tracking & Regulatory Reporting
• Supplier Risk Management
• Audit Trail Platforms

With pressure from regulators, investors, and customers mounting, these platforms enable companies to operationalize compliance, reduce risk exposure, and align with internal sustainability goals.

Growing at 26% CAGR, this is the fastest-growing subsegment and will play an increasingly strategic role for companies and investors alike.

Each edition of the supply chain series will focus on one of these areas. We will explore the market size and structure, key trends, benchmarks, standout companies, and strategic angles that matter to both founders and investors.

Who this is for

This series is for anyone shaping, building, or curious about the future of supply chain software, whether you’re deep in the industry or just starting to explore it. The goal is to offer sharp and relevant insights that can help you benchmark your business, see the broader playing field, and think a step ahead.

The first edition explores sourcing and supplier collaboration, a category gaining urgency as companies rethink how they manage cost, risk, and resilience across their supply base.

If you’re building in this space, investing in it, or simply interested in contributing ideas, we’d love to connect.