Knowde, an online marketplace connecting more than 700 major producers with customers around the globe, announced it has raised $14 million in Series A financing led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Refactor Capital, Bee Partners, Cantos Ventures and Knollwood Investment Advisory. Just as marketplaces have modernized many major industries before, Knowde is now bringing this same experience to chemicals and ingredients. The new funding follows on the heels of Knowde partnering with DuPont, DSM, Braskem, Sasol and many other major suppliers.

 

"We're proud to partner with Knowde because Ali and his team have a vision to digitally transform the chemical industry and bring one of the largest industries online," said Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia. "Many producers have been slow to build or adopt digital experiences for their customers, leaving them unable to fulfill the needs of a large segment of target buyers that are more comfortable with digital commerce. We believe Knowde is leading the industry into the future and has a huge opportunity to reshape how buyers and producers find one another."

 

For more than a century, the world's chemical and ingredient producers have relied on outside sales teams, brochures, catalogs and other traditional sales and marketing tactics with great success, representing $5 trillion in annual sales and impacting more than 25 percent of global GDP. More recently though, increased globalization, buyer preferences for a more digital and automated experience, and a changing supplier landscape have put pressure on producers to modernize their business practices and make marketing their products more efficient. Knowde is the first two-sided digital marketplace that is helping producers digitally transform their businesses.  By joining the Knowde marketplace, hundreds of producers have already streamlined their businesses, acquired new customers and tapped new revenue streams.

 

"Sequoia has a history of partnering with and helping build category-defining companies that change the way entire industries do business," said Ali Amin-Javaheri, founder and CEO of Knowde. "With the support of the Sequoia team and our other investment partners, we believe we can scale the Knowde marketplace to help every producer and buyer enjoy a consumer-grade digital experience."

 

In the Knowde.com marketplace, hundreds of companies have launched digital storefronts allowing buyers around the globe to instantly search, sample, quote and purchase their products. Today on Knowde, there are 700 chemical, ingredient and polymer producers selling more than 100,000 products to manufacturers of cosmetics, skincare, haircare and other brand name consumer, commercial and industrial products.