Based in New York Keychainwhich has an online platform through which packaged goods companies and retailers with private label businesses can find manufacturing partners, closed a $15 million Series A round led by Group of boxes.

The funding round, which follows an $18 million funding round announced last year, was also supported by new investors. General mills And Schreiber Foodsand existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners And SV Angel.

Keychain’s first product, a search and discovery platform, is now working at scale for U.S.-based food and beverage brands, retailers and manufacturers, said co-founder and CEO Oisin Hanrahan. “This happened much faster than expected. From there, we’re excited to build a comprehensive set of AI-driven workflow tools to help our brands and retail partners get their products to market faster.

“Additionally, you can expect an announcement on new verticals and geographies soon.”

“We are constantly looking for new ways to increase the efficiency of our supply chain workflows, and it’s rare that our team finds a product that we are universally positive about using. We believe Keychain will change the way the FMCG industry operates to advance the contract manufacturing industry. Paul Gallagher, Director of Supply Chain, General Mills

20,000 American manufacturers listed on the platform in less than 8 months

For a sector that deploys cutting-edge technologies in everything from logistics to pathogen control, the food industry is still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to finding co-manufacturers, says co-founder Hanrahan of the home maintenance platform. Practical HQ before selling it to Angie’s List (now Angie), and is now applying the Angi playbook to CPG manufacturing.

If you’re a brand or retailer looking for someone to make your product, he says, the options aren’t great: word of mouth and existing contacts, trade shows, expensive consultants, brokers and, if all else fails, Google.

The problem with these approaches, he argues, is that they are both limited by the size and scope of your existing network, expensive, time-consuming and, in the case of online searches, very inaccurate: the Does manufacturer X have the equipment that can actually produce your product?

“We took everything we learned at Handy and Angi and set out to create technology for brands and retailers to manage their relationships with manufacturers, ingredient companies and packaging companies.

“We secured seed capital and began building what is today the most comprehensive manufacturing dataset in the United States, which allows any brand or retailer to search over a million SKUs (stock keeping units) and find co-manufacturers with the production capabilities. them.”

He adds: “For example, if you work in the (private label) sourcing department of a large retailer, we have already indexed all your products from over 300 online sources, as well as some data feeds that we have purchased. We then have our own data models that analyze each product and label it at the process level and at the packaging level.

“Let’s say you want to find a co-packer for a certain type of trail mix. We use AI to analyze the packaging and ingredients in the description to determine what processing and packaging equipment is needed to make it. We then show you which of the 20,000 American manufacturers on our platform can achieve this. You can then filter them by certification or location, for example.

“When we first became involved with Keychain, the huge opportunity to help organize and support domestic manufacturing was obvious. What we have learned over the past few months is the extremely important role that Keychain will play in the development of global consumer goods trade, as well as the import and export of food products, materials and packaging. From sovereign wealth funds to commodity exchanges to certification agencies, they all have a clear strategic reason for wanting to have a relationship with Keychain. David Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup

10,000 brands and resellers

As for information on co-manufacturers, he says: “Most people who get into this field start by researching online. We do the opposite and start by looking at every company listed as a private company in the United States. And then we use that data set to identify which ones we think are manufacturers based on the signals we get from NAICS codes (used to categorize companies based on their primary business activity) and everything else.

“Then from there we do online data collection, most of it automated, coupled with manual research. We also have relationships with equipment and machinery sellers who tell us who they have sold machines to, which allows us to enrich the data.

But ultimately, he says, “what drives more manufacturers to commit to the trousseau is the fact that we have so many brands and retailers engaged, and they want to be a part of it.” This therefore becomes a virtuous circle (because they help Keychain to populate its platform).

Beyond Search: Integration and Continuous Workflow Tools

Like most platforms attempting to connect partners in a given sectorThe keychain seems to be far away more than a CPG connection site, he emphasizes. “We build the full stack to go from research and discovery, to planning the call, to signing an NDA, to specifying your product, to packaging approval, to negotiations of the framework service contract, final approval of the nutritional panel, etc.

“Eventually, we’ll probably get to financing as well, but we’re building in each of those individual segments. And each of these workflows will become its own market in areas like ingredients and packaging, where we use suppliers. So we see this platform supporting all different parts of the supply chain. It’s about bringing together the entire ecosystem end to end.

Currently, Keychain is focused on the United States, but is looking to expand both its geographic reach and the number of categories it covers, he says.

“Today we produce food and beverages in the United States, but we are obviously looking to Canada, Mexico and other markets, as well as categories such as supplements, pet care , beauty products for the home and personal care.”