Backend Engineer

The story of Partao began not in a boardroom, but in a field. Alex Ootes, a former Amazon executive who had spent years launching global automotive markets, found himself struggling with a surprisingly simple problem: he couldn't find spare parts for his own digger and tractor on his smallholding in the Netherlands. He realized that the agricultural and construction machinery parts industry was a "mess"—a fragmented, tail-end market where finding the right component was a frustrating ordeal for farmers and mechanics alike.

Teaming up with fellow Amazon veteran Virginia Strong, Ootes decided to apply the rigorous, data-driven principles of e-commerce to this overlooked sector. They founded Partao in 2023 with a bold "AI-first" approach, bypassing legacy systems entirely to build a smart, scalable marketplace from the ground up. By leveraging advanced AI and machine learning to organize millions of SKUs, Partao has rapidly grown into a comprehensive platform connecting buyers with sellers across Europe. What started as a personal frustration has evolved into a rapidly scaling startup, backed by €3 million in seed funding, on a mission to digitize the €250 billion heavy machinery parts industry.