Fairmarkit is a smart procurement platform that enables organisations to make purchase of goods and services more efficiently as they need. Recently, the start-up has announced to raise USD 30 million in its latest Series B funding round to modernise and simply procurement process for such organisations.
The funding round was led by Insight Partners and GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm along with existing investors such as NewFund Capital, 1984 Venture Capital and NewStack Ventures.
According to the company profile on CrunchBase, the procurement start-up has raised a total of USD 41 million from its 3 financing rounds. The Series B round of the company concluded recently on 10th December 2020.
Procurement of goods and services is a crucial aspect for any organisation and one of those aspects which usually gets neglected in terms of efficiency and cost-cutting. As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately made it difficult for buyers and suppliers to physically move out, especially during the time of lockdown, it is more than normal to find a way to do this task digitally.
Fairmarkit brings the solution on ground. The Boston-based start-up aims to replace the so-called ‘legacy vendors’- Oracle and SAP with a more efficient platform which is specifically designed to make better and improved procurements.
As reported by online publisher, TechCrunch- The legacy vendors who are established in the procurement space are designed to track only purchases which cost more than $1 million, approximately and anything under that figure goes straight to the category of ‘tail expense’.
Tail expenses, as mentioned by Kevin Frechette, CEO and Co-founder, Fairmarkit contains a value of 80% of what these organisations buy, 80% of what the vendors sell and 20% of the budget. He adds that the organisations only keep track of what purchases which value more than a million and any purchase below that cost is neglected.
Frechette mentions in a statement that these tail expenses needed a more effective tracking system and Fairmarkit brings the solution. The first customer of the start-up was the Boston’s mass transit system- MBTA which according to TechCrunch needed every possible solution to make its procurement business more efficient and today, the company is said to have over 50 customers across several different industries.
When asked about the future plans, the procurement start-up mentioned to diversify its employee base along with its product catalogue and ultimately double down on the sale figures by 2021.
Furthermore, Frechette also does not believe that offices will be a requirement for the future of businesses. Fairmarkit as a procurement business was completely operated digitally amidst the pandemic where the employees were not allowed to step foot in the office. Not just this, digital management of the business has pushed forward the growth of the company, added co-founder Kevin Frechette.