Kinnek, the marketplace for small businesses to find suppliers and manage purchasing, today announced that it has raised a $10 million Series A round of financing led by Matrix Partners, with participation from previous investors including Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, Naval Ravikant, CrunchFund, Richard Chen, TriplePoint Ventures, and Benjamin Ling. The new funds will be used to grow the company's marketing and engineering capabilities and fuel Kinnek's expansion into new industries.
Kinnek was founded in 2012 by Karthik Sridharan and Rui Ma after they noticed that purchasing operations of small and medium businesses were painfully antiquated.
'Helping small businesses was the impetus for starting Kinnek,' said Karthik Sridharan, co-founder and CEO of Kinnek. 'SMBs are stuck in a no-man's land when it comes to purchasing -- they can't go to Amazon to find what they are looking for, and they also don't have the resources of a Fortune 500 company with complex software systems and dedicated purchasing teams. Our goal is to build a marketplace that empowers small businesses to find suppliers as easily as their larger counterparts.'
Kinnek is part of a new wave of startups focused on providing solutions to small businesses, leveraging technology to improve traditionally 'unsexy' B2B areas. Kinnek targets the 4.7 million small and medium businesses in the U.S. that represent $2.2 trillion in annual aggregate spending on supplies and equipment. Many investors consider Kinnek to be a next-generation Alibaba, or the Alibaba for U.S. small businesses.
'Kinnek is busting open a dramatically underserved market by filling a void with a simple, transparent solution,' said Josh Hannah, general partner, Matrix Partners and new Kinnek board member. 'SMB owners can now outsource all of the headaches so that they can focus on what's really important, and that's growing a business.'
'The entire Kinnek team is super passionate about helping small business owners,' expressed Rui Ma, co-founder and COO of Kinnek. 'Small businesses have been neglected by the startup community, but the opportunity is huge. These millions of businesses deserve a modern solution.'
Kinnek has already helped thousands of companies across the country find the right suppliers and compare customized quotes. From restaurants and hotels to beverage producers and bakeries, these small businesses rely on the Kinnek platform to manage their purchasing more easily than ever.
'Not only has working with Kinnek saved us countless hours, it has also saved us hundreds of dollars,' explains Susie Griess of Griess Family Brews in Grants Pass, OR.
About Kinnek
Kinnek is the marketplace for small businesses to find suppliers and manage purchasing. Launched in 2012, Kinnek is based in New York City, and is built by a team that believes in leveraging technology to help small businesses succeed. The company is backed by some of the top technology investors in Silicon Valley, led by Matrix Partners. To find out more about how Kinnek is transforming small business purchasing, visit www.kinnek.com.
About Matrix Partners
Matrix Partners is a premier venture capital firm that has generated outstanding returns for more than three decades. By focusing on early-stage investments and emphasizing long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, the firm has delivered several of the industry's top performing funds of all time. Matrix Partners has offices in Cambridge, MA; Palo Alto, CA; Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Shanghai, China. Matrix Partners has invested in several game-changing, industry-leading businesses such as Apple Computer, Care.com, Gilt Groupe, HubSpot, JBoss, Netezza, Phone.com, Polyvore, Starent Networks, Sycamore Networks, Veritas, Zendesk, and Zong.