In German industry, some names need no explanation.

Gerhard Cromme is one of them.

Over decades, he has shaped companies that stand for Germany’s industrial strength: Krupp, ThyssenKrupp, Siemens, Volkswagen, Allianz, Lufthansa. Names that represent not just corporate headquarters, but plants, supply chains, thousands of suppliers, major investment decisions, and moments when industry comes under real pressure.

That makes it all the more special for us that Gerhard Cromme is, effective immediately, an investor in Tacto and a member of our Industry Advisory Board.

Who Gerhard Cromme Is

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Anyone looking at German industry over the past 40 years cannot overlook Gerhard Cromme.

As CEO of Krupp, he made decisions in the late 1980s that realigned the company. Later, he became one of the central figures behind the merger of Krupp and Thyssen to form ThyssenKrupp, one of the most defining industrial projects in Germany.

He then sat at the helm of some of the country’s most important companies: as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp and Siemens, with mandates at Volkswagen, Allianz, Lufthansa, and BNP Paribas. He also chaired the European Round Table of Industrialists and the German Corporate Governance Code Government Commission.

This is a career you cannot simply call “industry experience.” This is a life in industry.

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Why This Matters for Tacto

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Anyone who truly understands industry eventually arrives at procurement.

Not because it is merely where orders are placed, but because it is where it becomes visible how well a company is positioned: whether costs remain manageable, whether supply chains hold, whether alternatives exist when something fails, and whether new products can reach series production in time.

Much of this happens behind the scenes. In conversations with suppliers. In pricing rounds. In escalations. In decisions that rarely take place in public, yet ultimately determine how competitive an industrial company really is.

Gerhard Cromme knows this reality. Not from studies or market analyses, but from decades of responsibility at the top of German industrial companies.

His own words capture it:

“The profit lies in procurement.” - Gerhard Cromme

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What This Means for Us

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That is why his investment is something special for Tacto.

Not only because of the name, but because of the perspective behind it. Gerhard Cromme knows industry from situations in which procurement, supply chains, and cost structures are not abstract topics, but part of strategic decisions with real consequences.

This perspective helps us stay close to what truly matters in industry: better procurement decisions, more transparency over suppliers and costs, less manual work, and AI that creates real value.

That someone with this experience believes in Tacto is a strong signal for us.

And at the same time, an aspiration.

We are very pleased to welcome Gerhard Cromme as an investor and member of our Industry Advisory Board at Tacto.

Gerhard Cromme, one of the most influential figures in German industry (Krupp, ThyssenKrupp, Siemens, Volkswagen, Allianz, Lufthansa), is becoming an investor in Tacto and a member of its Industry Advisory Board. His decades of experience at the top of German industrial companies reinforce Tacto’s mission to make procurement a strategic lever for competitiveness – true to his words: “The profit lies in procurement.”