Katana , an Estonian startup which may have built manufacturing-specific enterprise resource preparation (ERP) software for SMBs, possesses raised $11 million in Variety A funding.
Chief the round is European venture capital firm Atomico, with participation beyond angel investors Ott Kaukver (Checkout. com CTO), Sten Tamkivi (CPO Topia, formerly Skype), Sergei Anikin (CTO, Pipedrive) and Kairi Pauskar (former TransferWise HR Architect). Earlier mentioned backer 42Cap also followed at, bringing the total investment raised inside the company to date to $16 unité.
Founded in 2017 by Kristjan Vilosius (CEO), Priit Kaasik (engineering lead) and Hannes Kert (CCO), Katana positions as well as the “entrepreneur manufacturer’s secret weapon” with a plug-and-play ERP for minute medium-sized manufacturers. The idea is to wean companies off existing antiquated systems such as spreadsheets and legacy program to manage inventory and production. Any startup is also playing into macro trends, such as the advent of online areas and D2C e-commerce, that are generating an explosion of independent poppers, spanning cosmetics to home décor, circuitry to apparel, and food and alcohol.
“We are seeing a global renaissance of meager manufacturing driven by the rise out of e-commerce tools and consumer regarding bespoke products produced locally, ” says Vilosius. “Just walk around all big city from London to positively San Francisco, and you’ll see workshops all around you. Someone’s making organic cosmetics here; over there, some body is making electric bikes. These firms are run by passionate entrepreneurs selling through traditional channels, but additionally selling through direct-to-consumer channels, e-commerce stores and marketplaces, etc . This is a massive boom of makers attempting to create products and sell them globally, and it is not a trend which will disappear tomorrow”.
The situation, however , is that small and medium-sized manufacturers don’t have the right software to support workflows necessary to sell through multiple channels — and this is where Katana comes in. The plug-and-play software claims a superior UX designed specifically to power boutique manufacturing, including functionality supporting the workflows of modern manufacturers, i. e. inventory control and optimization, and purchasing materials, managing bill-of-materials, tracking costs and more. It also provides an API and integrations with popular e-commerce sales channels and accounting tools such as Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, Xero and others.
“We have built the world’s most self on-board-able manufacturing ERP, and that’s a critical differentiation between us and competitors, ” explains Vilosius. “Implementation is indeed simple that more than half of Katana’s users self-onboard. It takes less than a week on average to get Katana up and running, compared to months for competitors”.
For instance of how a company might use Katana, imagine a boutique manufacturer using Shopify as their main sales channel. Once configured, Katana pulls in orders from Shopify and knows whether or not the product is available so it can be shipped immediately. If it’s unavailable, Katana displays if the necessary raw materials needed to manufacture come in stock and by when the product could be finished. “We handle the whole process from getting the raw materials in the warehouse to planning manufacturing activities, executing and shipping once the product is done, ” says Vilosius.
Image Credits: Katana
Cue statement from Atomico partner Ben Blume, who joins the Katana board: “Atomico has always believed in the strength of Estonian-built engineering and product, and as we got to know the team at Katana, we saw a familiar pattern: a relentlessly product-focussed team with the incredible ability to build and think from their customer’s point of view, and an unwavering belief that a new generation of manufacturers with big ideas shouldn’t have to settle for less than world-class technology to support them. ”
