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Focal Point founder Anders Lilliveik has spent greater than 25 years in procurement the place he noticed that the overwhelming majority of enterprise was nonetheless being performed utilizing spreadsheets and electronic mail. He noticed a possibility to modernize an business desperately in want of digitization by making use of the facility of open APIs to get at knowledge typically locked away in numerous enterprise methods.
He says the thought for his startup actually got here into focus when he was working as a guide serving to a shopper choose procurement software program. They had been spending $1.5 million, but would nonetheless be doing a lot of the work in Excel and electronic mail. Nothing was actually altering regardless of the numerous funding.
He noticed a special approach and set about to construct an organization to ship it. Right this moment, his startup introduced a $3 million seed funding to assist construct the platform he envisioned, one that might carry a stage of automation to a extremely guide course of.
“So primarily, what we do is we take all the info that sits within the underlying methods and convey them collectively. That in of itself shouldn’t be essentially distinctive, however what we do is we make that knowledge obtainable as a part of workflows. So we’ve got that knowledge integration layer, after which we’ve got a course of layer that permits customers to arrange their very own workflows and processes with the info obtainable to them,” Lilliveik instructed Nob6.
He mentioned that this strategy eliminates the necessity to log into a number of methods to search out data and file it within the dreaded spreadsheet. “All reporting comes out of the field, so it turns into a a lot better person expertise with all the data obtainable at your fingertips quite than having to swivel chair it from system to system, then copy and paste into Excel and electronic mail.”
The system can assist discover suppliers that meet a particular set of necessities, whether or not technical, environmental, range or no matter. The client can create a workflow and Focal Level can then current the person with a set of suppliers after which assist ship out RFPs, course of them and ultimately award the enterprise.
Procurement officers can monitor all of this exercise throughout their group with analytics that assist them perceive the place totally different gadgets are within the shopping for course of and what’s being spent.
Lilliveik launched the corporate in 2020 and raised a $679K pre-seed funding from Floor VC, Techstars and numerous angels in 2021, which he put to work to construct the primary model of the software program final yr. He has a a handful of enormous prospects utilizing the software program, and experiences a wholesome pipeline.
He began constructing the software program with a small group of Ukrainian developer contractors in 2021, and immediately has 21 workers, 4 of which he just lately employed. He’s placing the brakes on hiring for the remainder of the yr whereas he sees how exterior financial situations play out.
He says that range is one thing that’s close to and pricey to his coronary heart. He factors out that the corporate is a disabled-owned enterprise. “So having a watch for range is one thing that we all the time have. Our dev crew is definitely nonetheless within the Ukraine. It’s simply they’re our builders now, and the complement there’s pretty numerous. And I might say that no less than half of our crew onshore right here in Atlanta can also be numerous. So we want to rent one of the best expertise, one of the best obtainable [employees], and naturally, we’ve got to have a watch in direction of range additionally. However they’re not mutually unique,” he mentioned.
He experiences that his Ukraine-based crew is protected in the meanwhile however some members have had harmful experiences having to evacuate from shelling, and he helped his workers get to security, a job he takes very critically.
By way of elevating at a time when VC {dollars} are tightening, he sees his answer serving to procurement groups discover higher offers in a extra environment friendly approach, one thing that ought to stay engaging no matter financial situations.
Right this moment’s $3 million seed got here from a gaggle of traders together with Susa Ventures, Amplo, GoPoint Ventures, Bungalow Capital and Operator Companions.
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