Please welcome Valdera, the modern sourcing platform for chemicals and raw materials
Meet Valdera, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Founder: Sruti Arulmani and Dheev Arulmani
The problem: Supplier discovery is a central part of any company’s procurement process. But the market for sourcing chemicals and raw materials is extremely fragmented. Finding the right inputs to bring products to market is tougher than ever. There are hundreds of thousands of suppliers around the globe, and infinite permutations of specs, certifications, and regulatory requirements. And still, despite significant developments in technology, sourcing and transactions remain largely manual processes, conducted largely through offline relationships. There is a clear need to modernize supply chain processes and make the discovery process for chemicals and raw materials more accessible.
Valdera’s solution: Valdera is a modern sourcing platform that makes it easy to buy or sell quality chemicals and raw materials. The company’s platform serves as a central hub that brings together buyers, suppliers, brands, manufacturers, and producers from around the world. Leveraging recent advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science, Valdera helps businesses navigate the fragmented and arcane world of supply chains. Using Valdera’s platform, buyers can reduce supply risk, manage market volatility, and find the inputs they need to bring products to market, in keeping with sustainability goals. Meanwhile, sellers benefit from new leads, automated matching, market intelligence, and the ability to manage their sales pipeline.
Origin story: In 2021, we were introduced to the brother-sister duo behind Valdera via our Stanford network, and were immediately impressed by this young and scrappy team’s approach. Dheev’s deep industry experience working with industrials and chemicals clients at McKinsey was compelling, as was Sruti’s background in manufacturing tech. We got to know the team during the diligence process, as we were able to make a number of interesting introductions to our existing portfolio companies and other relevant entities in our broader network, including many who later became clients, or are currently in the pipeline. It’s been really exciting to see how far this team has come in the several years we’ve known them.
Why we’re betting on it: Valdera is rethinking supplier discovery. Underlying the company’s algorithm is the world’s largest database of more than 400,000 chemical and raw material suppliers. For most companies, the traditional method of discovering new suppliers can take many months. With Valdera’s AI-augmented solution, buyers can now source inputs in just a couple of weeks. Moreover, while existing online marketplaces and data solutions can help gather supplier information, they offer only a small slice of the value that the holistic Valdera platform is able to provide. Valdera works with many industry leaders, like the world’s largest carbon fiber producer, Toray Industries. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Sruti and Dheev as they leverage AI to revolutionize the global system of supply chains.
Our take: Since the pandemic, supply chains have come under immense pressure, brands are struggling to find new suppliers, and consumers are demanding more transparency, in addition to seeking products with clean, non-toxic, and sustainable footprints. To respond to these demands, brands are iterating on old products and relaunching them with new materials. As investors and operators with deep experience in consumer and retail, we at LH have first-hand knowledge of these challenges. Valdera has identified a major gap in the market and built a platform that offers real-world solutions to these problems.
Further reading: “Exclusive: Valdera closes $15M Series A” via Axios
Check out Valdera on LinkedIn.
