Supplier Management Attracts $12M In Venture Capital

An India-based startup helping businesses better manage their suppliers has raised new funding from investors.

Reports on Wednesday (July 13) revealed SirionLabs secured $12.25 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia India, along with QualGro ASEAN Fund and Canopy Ventures.

SirionLabs provides multinational companies with a way to manage and analyze supplier contracts and provide auditing and other solutions with the information. According to reports, BP, Western Union and Vodafone are all clients of SirionLabs.

“We’re moving from a world that consumes goods and commodities to a world that consumes services,” said SirionLabs CEO Ajay Agrawal in an interview with TechCrunch. “Traditional procurement technology doesn’t cut the ice; managing the vendor after signature is the order of the day.”

The executive added that, while many companies understand the need to manage vendors and audit contracts and deals, they can be overwhelmed by the data involved in the task. SirionLabs automates the auditing process to provide the data surrounding obligations and deliverables to a company.

Agrawal told the outlet that SirionLabs has not yet fully automated this process, however; to date, he said, about 50 percent of the process is manual.

With new funding in place, SirionLabs said it will expand its sales team, which exists across India, the U.S., U.K. and Singapore, and focus on product development.

Supplier management has been identified as a crucial component of the procurement process for businesses, in more ways than one. It can provide greater security and risk mitigation capabilities to a company, while others point to supplier management’s ability to lead to faster B2B payments.

It may also help the accounts payable process operate more efficiently. Last month, a new report emerged from iPayables that found some of the top frustrations among AP professionals stem from vendors themselves, including suppliers’ mistakenly sending invoices to the wrong department.