Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Philipp Thomaschewski, CEO of Fratch: Fratch is an AI-powered platform for freelancer and interim sourcing. Our AI agent Fratch GPT automates the entire procurement process and makes it significantly faster, easier, and cheaper for companies to find the best external experts.
Indirect procurement often suffers from inefficient processes, lack of transparency, and high costs. Specialized departments often bypass the procurement process out of ignorance and award contracts intransparently, which leads to poor conditions and quality issues. Fratch GPT optimizes this process with artificial intelligence by acting as a smart procurement assistant, understanding needs, and finding the best available freelancers or interim managers within seconds – including automated availability checks and cost control. This reduces sourcing fees by up to 75 percent compared to traditional providers.
Automated matching and guided buying
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Philipp Thomaschewski: There are platforms and traditional recruiters, but Fratch GPT takes a completely new approach. Instead of manual brokering or complicated processes, our AI relies on automated matching and guided buying. Fratch GPT accepts requests in natural language, asks targeted follow-up questions, and delivers a shortlist of suitable freelancers within seconds – directly in the browser or MS Teams. In doing so, our solution reduces sourcing fees by up to 75 percent, as expensive brokerage fees are eliminated and the selection process is fully automated.
Additionally, Fratch provides greater transparency and more efficient procurement processes by intelligently guiding specialized departments through the procurement process. This makes Fratch a faster, cheaper, and smarter alternative to existing solutions.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Philipp Thomaschewski: The idea for Fratch came from my own experience as a freelancer. I experienced firsthand how manual and intransparent the brokering processes are – which leads to rising costs for companies and declining daily rates for freelancers.
With my background in digital business models and automation, I wanted to create a solution that makes the sourcing process smarter, faster, and cheaper – with the help of AI. Relatively quickly, my co-founder and CTO Damian Sniatecki joined me, who as a freelancer had also experienced the same issues.
Convincing many companies
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Philipp Thomaschewski: Our biggest challenge was convincing procurement managers and hiring managers of a completely new, AI-powered approach. Many companies are used to manual processes and traditional staffing agencies – and need to experience for themselves how much faster and cheaper it is with Fratch GPT.
We therefore launched pilot projects to show companies the benefits in practice. Once they see that our AI agent delivers a shortlist of suitable freelancers within seconds instead of waiting days for recommendations from recruiters, there’s no going back.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Philipp Thomaschewski: In one year: Fratch should be the leading solution for freelancer and interim sourcing in Germany. Companies should use Fratch GPT as a standard solution for their procurement processes.
In five years: We want to have established Fratch as the European solution. This way, German companies can draw from an even larger pool of skilled workers, and we can offer exciting international projects to freelancers and interim managers.
“Calculated risk”
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Philipp Thomaschewski: Munich is a strong location, especially for B2B startups. There is strong networking with large corporations and mid-sized companies as well as a growing ecosystem for AI and procurement technologies. The high cost of living is a challenge, but for our business model – which targets companies – proximity to large firms offers great advantages for cooperation and growth.
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Philipp Thomaschewski: Calculated risk – I don’t think you can do it any other way as a founder.
