Gembah’s mission assertion is a deceptively easy one. The Austin-based firm says it’s seeking to “democratize product innovation by drastically reducing limitations to entry for creation of latest merchandise.” In that respect, at the least, it’s not so dissimilar from varied startup initiatives which have arrived over the previous decade, from crowdfunding to additive manufacturing.
The corporate’s product is a platform/market designed to information customers via the product-creation course of, promising leads to “as little as 90 days.” The discussion board connects smaller companies to factories, provide chain specialists, designers, engineers, and so on. to assist pace up the method. Simply ask anybody who has tried to launch a {hardware} startup — this stuff will be massively tough to navigate.
To assist speed up its personal imaginative and prescient, Gembah has raised an $11 million Collection A, led by native agency ATX Enterprise Companions together with Silverton, Flexport, Brett Damage, Jim Curry and Dan Graham.
Picture Credit: Gembah
It follows a $3.28 million seed spherical led by Silverton introduced in April of final 12 months, bringing its complete funding as much as $14.75 million.
The corporate says the pandemic has really been one thing of a boon for its enterprise mannequin, as {hardware} startups are wanting towards a extra on-line mannequin — and one thing a bit nearer to house than the standard gross sales channels. The corporate says its income grew 500% in 2020 and is on observe to triple revenues this 12 months. It’s spectacular progress within the face of some main provide chain points which have impacted the business in the course of the previous 12 months and a half.
It at present has 300 energetic clients, although it was but to realize profitability — therefore the brand new spherical. “Since most of our clients are e-commerce firms we benefited from the accelerated progress of e-commerce,” CEO and co-founder Henrik Johansson tells TechCrunch. “Provide chains have been impacted to some extent, however as the worldwide provide chain will get extra complicated and plenty of firms need to diversify exterior of China, they need assistance to navigate that change, and Gembah can assist with that transition.”
The funding will go towards rising the corporate’s engineering staff. At current, Gembah has 55 staff within the U.S., and 19 in different areas, together with Asia and Mexico. The brand new headcount might be targeted on rising {the marketplace}, provide chain workflow and machine-learning capabilities. Gembah may even look to develop its world community and make further hires in advertising and UI/UX.
“Gembah is a real innovator poised to assist companies capitalize on the expansion of worldwide eCommerce,” ATX Enterprise Companions’ Chris Shonk stated in an announcement. “The Gembah market guarantees to unlock just about limitless entrepreneurial fairness by enabling a complete new breed of creators to enter the market.”
