WherEX, an e-sourcing software startup, has closed a $7 million Series A funding round to expands its operations to international markets.
The funding round was led by Kayyak Ventures along with the participation of Jaguar Ventures, Tuesday Capital, and Jaguar Ventures. New Co-founders Ben Garcia and Francisco Puente, are Y-Combinator alumni class of S20 who graduated from MIT in 2018.
The Chilean-based startup is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, harvesting its potential to make B2B commerce more transparent and competitive. It achieves to do this by offering multiple qualified offers on its marketplace for every product or service it tenders to.
Founded in 2016, the startup was originally aimed at the fishing industry, with its first clients being in the salmon industry, before expanding to other sectors such as the industrials, materials, and services industries. Its digital tool offers a solution to request products and services, as well as receiving bids from qualified suppliers across the world. This allows the platform to increase competition and transparency to every purchase as well as opening the doors for suppliers to bid to potential buyers.
By May 2021, the cloud-based software had reached over $720 million in trading between 125 enterprise clients and more than 20,000 suppliers across the globe. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its operations to Latin American countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, as well as competing in the US market by 2022. Juan Carlos Hurtado, co-founder and CEO at WherEX said the platform would grow transaction volumes by 300% and end the year with 250 enterprise clients in the Latin American countries.
“B2B commerce in the US is still in its infancy in terms of digital, financing, and sourcing. We see an opportunity to bring a comprehensive and analytical e-sourcing solution to the US Market to make B2B transactions easy, “Cristobal Silva, managing Partner at Kayyak Ventures said.
The pandemic resulted in the disruption of the supply chain industry as procurement teams were accustomed to using their usual suppliers, having to completely overturn their supply chains as a result of the disruption. In addition, working remotely made the challenge more difficult for procurement teams, suppliers, and sellers in digital transformation.
Similar to Latin America, the US market dimension is predicted to have around 60,000 prospective clients. In the first three months of operations in Mexico, the E-sourcing software startup has increased its budget by over 200% with 15 enterprise deals implemented across the industrials, materials sectors, and consumer sectors.
