Katana, an Estonian startup that has constructed manufacturing-specific enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) software program for SMBs, has raised $11 million in Sequence A funding.
Main the spherical is European enterprise capital agency Atomico, with participation from angel buyers Ott Kaukver (Checkout.com CTO), Sten Tamkivi (CPO Topia, previously Skype), Sergei Anikin (CTO, Pipedrive) and Kairi Pauskar (former TransferWise HR Architect). Earlier backer 42Cap additionally adopted on, bringing the whole funding raised by the corporate to this point to $16 million.
Based in 2017 by Kristjan Vilosius (CEO), Priit Kaasik (engineering lead) and Hannes Kert (CCO), Katana positions itself because the “entrepreneur producer’s secret weapon” with a plug-and-play ERP for small to medium-sized producers. The thought is to wean corporations off current antiquated instruments resembling spreadsheets and legacy software program to handle stock and manufacturing. The startup can also be enjoying into macro tendencies, resembling the arrival of on-line marketplaces and D2C e-commerce, which might be leading to an explosion of unbiased makers, spanning cosmetics to dwelling décor, electronics to attire, and meals and drinks.
“We’re seeing a world renaissance of small manufacturing pushed by the rise of e-commerce instruments and client demand for bespoke merchandise produced regionally,” says Vilosius. “Simply stroll round any huge metropolis from London to San Francisco, and also you’ll see workshops throughout you. Somebody’s making natural cosmetics right here; over there, somebody is making electrical bikes. These corporations are run by passionate entrepreneurs promoting by means of conventional channels, but in addition promoting by means of direct-to-consumer channels, e-commerce shops and marketplaces, and many others. It is a huge growth of makers desirous to create merchandise and promote them globally, and it’s not a development that can disappear tomorrow”.
The issue, nonetheless, is that small and medium-sized producers don’t have the precise software program to assist workflows essential to promote by means of a number of channels — and that is the place Katana is available in. The plug-and-play software program claims a superior UX designed particularly to energy boutique manufacturing, together with performance supporting the workflows of recent producers, i.e. stock management and optimization, and buying supplies, managing bill-of-materials, monitoring prices and extra. It additionally gives an API and integrations with common e-commerce gross sales channels and accounting instruments resembling Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, Xero and others.
“We have now constructed the world’s most self on-board-able manufacturing ERP, and that’s a vital differentiation between us and opponents,” explains Vilosius. “Implementation is so easy that greater than half of Katana’s customers self-onboard. It takes lower than per week on common to get Katana up and operating, in comparison with months for opponents”.
For example of how an organization would possibly use Katana, think about a boutique producer utilizing Shopify as their principal gross sales channel. As soon as configured, Katana pulls in orders from Shopify and is aware of whether or not or not the product is offered so it may be shipped instantly. If it’s unavailable, Katana shows if the mandatory uncooked supplies wanted to fabricate are in inventory and by when the product could possibly be completed. “We deal with your complete course of from getting the uncooked supplies within the warehouse to planning manufacturing actions, executing and delivery when the product is finished,” says Vilosius.
Picture Credit: Katana
Cue assertion from Atomico accomplice Ben Blume, who joins the Katana board: “Atomico has all the time believed within the energy of Estonian-built engineering and product, and as we received to know the workforce at Katana, we noticed a well-known sample: a relentlessly product-focussed workforce with the unbelievable skill to construct and suppose from their buyer’s standpoint, and an unwavering perception {that a} new technology of producers with huge concepts shouldn’t should accept lower than world-class know-how to assist them.”
