Fulcrum - the cloud system fueling the future of manufacturing - has raised $3.1 million in seed round funding to accelerate growth supporting its bold vision for a brighter future through connected production.

The Minneapolis-based Software-as-a-Service startup builds on more than a decade of experience creating custom ERP solutions for manufacturers and now provides a software-as-a-service platform to help manufacturers optimize sales, quoting, purchasing, job scheduling, tracking, fulfillment and more. Its aim is to add better design and automation to help the multi-trillion-dollar manufacturing industry take a giant leap forward.

This round of funding was led by Chicago-based Motivate Ventures. Battery Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Bread & Butter Ventures, IrishAngels, Social Starts, SpringTime Ventures, as well as individual investors Daren Cotter, Phil Soran, and Yishan Wong participated in the round.

"Now more than ever, there's a clear, urgent need for a connected manufacturing supply chain and a better production system in the market, and that's been validated by our growth and this round of investment," said Sunny Han, CEO and founder of Fulcrum. "I couldn't be more pleased with how our customers have responded to the way we were intentional with the design and workflow of our solution. We're excited to accelerate growth with these funds and counsel from our investors."

David Wieland, Founder and Managing Partner of Motivate Ventures, stated, "We're thrilled to be working with Sunny - an expert and thought leader in manufacturing operations - and the exceptionally talented and driven Fulcrum team to provide a truly transformative ERP experience accessible on universal devices and web platforms for the modern day manufacturing operator."

Han started Fulcrum in 2015 to address the acute challenges facing the millions of small- to medium-sized manufacturers worldwide. Legacy ERP systems built for Fortune 500 companies are not suited for the budgets, timelines, or use cases of the rest of the vast production ecosystem. And the global market is at a turning point of accelerating automation and human ingenuity to foster innovation in manufacturing well beyond its current state. The impact of a connected cloud supporting this ecosystem will have a massive impact on the well-being of humankind. A lofty premise and aim to be sure, but Han doesn't water down his ambitions:

"Gaining the power to accelerate our growth so that we, the collective David can beat the Goliath of calcified legacy systems while simultaneously stitching together a new way in which business is done in such a core industry is incredibly motivating," says Han. "We're building the manufacturing operating system of the future -- a beautiful, sophisticated quantum leap forward for the most important core industry in the world."

Fulcrum will apply this investment towards further product enhancements, customer enablement, as well as sales and marketing to accelerate growth.

For more information, visit http://www.fulcrumpro.com/grow

About Fulcrum
Fulcrum is a SaaS enterprise ERP, MRP, and MES platform allowing small and mid-sized manufacturers to improve efficiency through workflow optimization and automated data collection. Fulcrum delivers value through a fully digital, paperless workflow leveraging machine learning, automation, predictive analytics, and advanced heuristics to drive throughput and profitability. For more information, visit http://www.fulcrumpro.com.

About Motivate Venture Capital [LEAD INVESTOR]
We have been successfully building and investing in startups since 2003. Our energy and inspiration comes from working with exceptional founders to build tomorrow's greatest companies.

"We're thrilled to be working with Sunny - an expert and thought leader in manufacturing operations - and the exceptionally talented and driven Fulcrum team to provide a truly transformative ERP experience accessible on universal devices and web platforms for the modern day manufacturing operator." - David Wieland, Founder / Managing Partner

About Battery Ventures
Battery Ventures is a global, technology-focused investment firm pursuing the most prominent companies and ideas. Founded in 1983, our firm makes venture-capital and private equity investments from six offices around the world. We work hard, but humbly, and are guided by data-driven processes. We seek out extraordinary business leaders who operate the same way.

"Manufacturing employs more than 12 million people in the US, or ~8% of the American workforce, and many more globally. We've been looking to invest in a cloud-based operating system for the manufacturing industry for years now. Manufacturers, from the business owner to job shoppers on the front lines have been asking for someone to fulfill this vision, and we're excited to back Sunny and team to do just that!" - Sanjiv Kalevar, Principal

About Schematic Ventures
Schematic Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund located in San Francisco. The fund is focused on investments in technology companies within supply chain, manufacturing, commerce infrastructure & digital industrial sectors.

"Rapid growth in manufacturing has been held back by lackluster software. Fulcrum will change that: the first manufacturing ERP with modern design principles. We're excited to participate in the Fulcrum seed round and be a part of this industry-defining company." - Julian Counihan, General Partner

About Bain Capital Ventures
We partner with disruptive founders to accelerate their ideas to market. We focus on founders passionate about transforming major industries, ranging from SaaS, infrastructure software and security to fintech and healthcare to commerce and consumer tech. Our unique and differentiated platform empowers founders to grow their companies at all stages.

"Everyone has been asking for a modern, usable ERP, and Fulcrum is finally delivering on it-we were wowed by their focused product vision, ease of deployment, and the customer love they've earned so far. It's 2020: never-ending implementations are unacceptable, and operational excellence (let alone functional technology) is business-critical; with this backdrop, we are thrilled to back Sunny and his team in empowering manufacturers to compete and win." - Kevin Zhang, Partner

About Matchstick Ventures
Our goal is to be the most impactful early-stage, technology investor in the North and Rockies. We invest where innovative ideas, huge markets and most importantly, ambitious and diverse founders strike. Matchstick exists to act as a catalyst for our founders, our partners, and our startup communities. At Matchstick, we're privileged to support the most curious, ambitious and humble entrepreneurs as they grow meaningful businesses.

"The Fulcrum platform is the most robust and innovative platform we've seen that is addressing the needs of modern manufacturers. We're excited to support the incredible Fulcrum team to support the next generation of production. " - Ryan Broshar, Partner / Founder

About Bread & Butter Ventures
We're an early stage venture capital firm based in Minnesota, the Bread and Butter State, investing globally while leveraging our state and region's unparalleled access to strong corporate connections, commercial opportunities, and industry expertise for the benefit of our founders.

"Manufacturers of all sizes struggle with digitizing their processes. The cost of a new system is astronomical and takes an incredible amount of time to customize and implement. Even after doing all of this it is difficult to get employees to actually use it! Sunny and the amazing team at Fulcrum are changing all of this with better technology for a new generation of production." - Brett Brohl, Managing Partner

About IrishAngels
IrishAngels was founded in 2012 as an angel network affiliated with Notre Dame. In 2017, IrishAngels Ventures (rebranded VitalizeVC in 2019) was launched as a result of continued growth and investment appetite among the IrishAngels investor network. Today, VitalizeVC and IrishAngels leverage shared team resources and office space, though each entity has a discrete investment criteria and process.

"We like to back founders with big visions who have the operational know-how to execute quickly yet meaningfully. Investing in Sunny and his team at Fulcrum was an easy decision to make!" - Gale Wilkinson, Founder

About Social Starts
Social Starts is a venture capital partnership with a uniquely data-driven approach to investing in moment-of-inception and Series A financing rounds. We focus on companies that leverage social and mobile technologies with a particular emphasis on the emerging science and technology of health and happiness.

"We're proud to support Fulcrum in their groundbreaking work to bring forth a new resurgence of manufacturing growth. Sunny has assembled a brilliant and highly qualified team to build better technology for a new generation of production." - Mike Edelhart, Managing Partner

About SpringTime Ventures
We love startups. We love the grit, passion, and innovation that entrepreneurs bring to the world. We believe in a company culture that inspires action, accountability, and intention. We have a deep soul for this, and we want our companies to be the same. We know ideas are not enough. We invest in trustworthy leaders who have deep domain experience. We want them acutely aware of the people, partners, and resources they need to scale.

"SpringTime Ventures is excited to be part of the Fulcrum team. Sunny has the deep domain expertise that we look for in founders, and his journey represents the grit and dedication it takes to succeed. We believe Fulcrum's systems will enable small & medium sized American manufacturers to stay competitive, flourish and grow." - Rich Maloy, Venture Partner

About Daren Cotter
Daren founded InboxDollars, an online consumer rewards program, as a Freshman in college in 2000. He led the company's growth to more than $25 million of annual revenues -- entirely bootstrapped -- and sold the business to a strategic acquirer in 2019. Daren is active in the MN Tech community as a mentor, advisor, and angel investor.

"Fulcrum addresses a significant pain point for their customers in a very large market. I'm very impressed by Sunny's leadership and think this is a key MN company to watch!"

About Phil Soran
Phil Soran serves as Lead Director on the board of directors of Piper Sandler Companies, is on the board of directors for Foodsby, and was co-founder of Flipgrid, Inc., CEO and co-founder of Compellent Technologies, Inc., CEO and co-founder of Xiotech.

"I have known Sunny for years and seen how much he cares about manufacturing and especially Fulcrum's customers. The culture Sunny has created has enabled Fulcrum to develop solutions that have a true, positive business impact for manufacturers, which is why I'm excited to support and be a part of their continued growth!"

Yishan Wong
Yishan Wong was the CEO of Reddit, co-founder of Sunfire Offices, founder of Terraformation, an early engineer at PayPal, an early engineer at Facebook and an advisor at Quora.