Kinaxis is a

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished produc ...

and sales and operation planning software company based in the Kanata district of

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is listed on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

and is a S&P/TSX Composite Component. The company was founded in 1984 by Duncan Klett and two others as Cadence Computer Corporation and went public in June 2014. In 2017, Kinaxis said that it expected to have 500 employees by the end of the year.

Business

Kinaxis provides

supply-chain-management software Supply-chain-management software (SCMS) is the software tools or modules used in executing supply chain transactions, managing supplier relationships and controlling associated business processes. Supply chain management maximizes the efficiency of ...

on a subscription basis, primarily to large, multinational companies. Customers include Ford,

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

, and

Avaya Avaya LLC(), formerly Avaya Inc., is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, that provides cloud communications and workstream collaboration services. The company's platform includes unified commun ...

. They also provide related professional services to their customers. Contracts typically run for two to five years. Their main product was called RapidResponse). As of 2017, approximately 77% of revenue came from subscriptions, with the remainder from professional services. Kinaxis also allows other companies, including

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

and

Bain & Company Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and nonprofit organizations. One of the Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three management co ...

, to install Kinaxis software for a percentage of the subscription revenues. Kinaxis runs two data centers in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It has approximately 100 customers and about 5% of an estimated $4 billion market for software related to supply chain planning. As of 2016, 85% of revenue was from US customers, 4% from Canadian customers, 8% from Asian customers, and the rest from European customers. Competitors in the supply chain management software industry include

SAP SE Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

and

JDA Software Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (formerly JDA Software Group) is an American supply chain management company operating as an independent Subsidiary of multinational holding company Panasonic Corporation. Founded in 1985, the company is headquartered in S ...

. In 2017, a significant customer in Asia stopped paying, leading to a 3% reduction in revenue for the company.

History

Kinaxis was founded in 1984 as Cadence Computer Corporation, to do supply-chain analysis of using custom mainframe computers, by three former

Mitel Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP), unified commu ...

engineers. The name was later changed to Carp Systems International (after the nearby Carp River), then Enterprise Planning Systems. In the mid 1990s, it changed its name to Webplan, and shifted from making hardware to providing software.

Recent history

In 2000, it led a venture round that raised $33 million. In 2005, it renamed itself Kinaxis, and started focusing on selling software by subscription, as opposed to collecting a one-time fee. In June 2014, it held an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising a total of $100 million. Since then, its market capitalization has increased to $1.7 billion, as of August 2017. In 2022 they acquired MPO, a multi party orchestration platform connecting Supply Chain actors. In December 2024, Kinaxis Inc. has rejected calls from activist investors to pursue a sale, emphasizing its commitment to creating long-term shareholder value. Daventry Group LP, holding a 1.3% stake in the company, issued a letter urging the board to explore a sale, while Irenic Capital Management LP echoed this sentiment in a separate statement. In response, Kinaxis hired Goldman Sachs for strategic advice and reaffirmed its focus on its current business plan.

References

{{Reflist Online companies of Canada Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies based in Ottawa Supply chain software companies Information technology companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1984 Software companies of Canada Software companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Ontario