This seems to be an evening for breaking news related to supply chain management.  In addition to our previous commentary on the revelation that Amazon has been piloting its own same day package delivery service, yet another interesting report has crossed out alert network.

The Canadian edition of the Wall Street Journal is today reporting that supply chain planning and response management technology provider Kinaxis is in the midst of preparing for an initial public offering according to sources familiar with the matter. (Paid subscription required).

According to this WSJ report, sources indicate that the proposed offering could raise upwards of 100 million Canadian dollars ($90.6 million) and that the IPO is expected to launch in the coming weeks.  The WSJ notes that a Kinaxis spokeswoman could not be reached for comment regarding its report. 

Supply Chain Matters is quite familiar with Kinaxis. The technology provider was one of this blog’s original sponsors in 2008, for which we were truly honored. If this report turns out to be accurate, a sum of nearly $90 million is quite significant for a company the current size of Kinaxis.  It would indicate some aggressive plans moving forward.

In our travels, Supply Chain Matters had been picking up some industry chatter that an IPO may have been in the works, and this report is the strongest indication yet.  An IPO of this reported size would serve as further evidence of increased private and public investment funding of supply chain and B2B focused technology providers.

Of late, Kinaxis has been not at all shy about hyping its higher ranking in the latest Gartner, Inc. Magic Quadrant ratings of supply chain planning SOR vendors. The provider was ranked in the Leaders Quadrant, highest in completeness of vision, less so in ability to execute.

Since then, online and social media based chatter and presence originating from Ottawa has been subdued, perhaps another sign of what is to come.

Stay tuned.

Bob Ferrari