[Funding alert] CapGrid raises Rs 4.1Cr from Anicut Angel Fund, Axilor, First Cheque

CapGrid, a B2B commerce company specialising in sourcing and procurement of direct-material supplies, has raised Rs 4.1 crore ($550,000) in seed funding from Anicut Angel Fund, Axilor Ventures, and First Cheque.

The B2B startup plans to leverage the new funds to boost product innovation, scale operations, and expand its team for efficiency.

Dheeraj Kumar Tiwari, Co-founder and CEO, CapGrid said, “We have been bootstrapped so far and this seed capital will go into hiring the right talent, product innovation and expanding our fulfilment operations. We are eyeing an annual revenue of Rs 200 crore by 2022 end and are certain to leapfrog from here. We have bagged a contract worth Rs 50 crore by way of new customer acquisition. These are exciting times for us and we are certain of exciting times ahead.”

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Ashvin Chadha, Co-founder, Anicut Angel Fund, said, “Manufacturing industry, especially the direct material sourcing, has long been underserved and CapGrid had the vision to commission the narrative. Dheeraj and Himanshu are transforming this by addressing industry pain-points such as long-drawn parts sourcing cycle, inefficient vendor development process, unorganized supplier information, and lack of sourcing data.”

CapGrid was founded in July 2020 by Dheeraj Kumar Tiwari and Himanshu Singh Raghuvanshi. Both founders are former management consultants, having worked with manufacturers/OEMs across India, the US, and Japan for over a decade.

According to Dheeraj, the strategic sourcing of direct material, which constitutes 60-70 percent revenues, has been largely untouched by innovation.

"Most of the other startups have been focusing on the procurement of indirect spend. We are building a sourcing-focused company aiming to disrupt the sourcing and purchase cycle for the factory supplies," he added.

Nandan Venkatachalam, Principal at Axilor Ventures, added, “COGS or Directly Material Sourcing is the largest cost centre for manufacturers and has a supply chain riddled with inefficiencies. An average manufacturer goes through a 50-step process across stakeholders and works with over 1,000 suppliers to source direct material, with each layer acting as a cost centre. CapGrid’s new age platform allows manufacturers to automate this process, expand their global sourcing base, reduce costs and drive efficiency. The company has demonstrated global PMF across verticals and we are delighted to back them in their quest to streamline this largely untapped $75 billion opportunity.” 

CENSIE Capital Partners was the exclusive financial advisor to CapGrid Solutions for this said investment round. CapGrid was also part of ‘StellarStory 1.0', a programme recently launched by CENSIE exclusively for seed-stage startups.

According to Kushal Bhagia, CEO at First Cheque, “We are truly excited by Dheeraj and Himanshu’s vision to simplify sourcing for Auto OEMs. Their SaaS solution coupled with the commerce offering gives a multitude of benefits to the OEM — making CapGrid a no brainer operator to work with.”

CapGrid’s AI-powered platform and deep network of suppliers allows manufacturers to significantly reduce the complexities in the direct material sourcing and procurement process. These capabilities allow manufacturers to expedite the sourcing of the high complexity categories 5X and consolidate the supplier base for the low complexity precision components.

The startup claims to be working across sectors such as automotive, agricultural equipment, earthmoving equipment, aerospace, oil and gas, consumer durables, and electric vehicles (EVs). CapGrid currently works with over 30,000 suppliers across 15 countries, and with several leading automotive OEMs.