CapGrid, automotive sourcing start-up, raises $ 7 Million in Series A round

CapGrid, a B2B cloud manufacturing start-up for precision parts & components, announced today that it has raised $ 7 million in its latest funding round, led by Nexus Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from existing investors Axilor and Anicut Capital. Deepak Jain, a senior Partner at Bain and head of the automotive practice in India, also participated as angel investor in the round.

CapGrid is building a digital supply network with an advance technology infrastructure, partnering with hundreds of Tier 2 manufacturers to get precision parts & components sourced, manufactured and delivered to customer’s assembly line. CapGrid’s deep capabilities in illuminating and tapping into the available capacity of QC-certified Tier 2 suppliers enables it to become a cloud manufacturer and aggregate supplier to Automotive and EV OEMs and Tier 1s. To be able to cater to manufacturers across the country, CapGrid partners with warehousing and logistics players in an asset light model to be able to deliver to the customer’s assembly line.

CapGrid’s customer list has leading players from across 2W, 3W, 4W, Tractor, Construction equipment manufacturers and large automotive Tier 1s. For these customers, CapGrid through various offerings e.g. regular procurement consolidation, NPD (New Product Development), SPD (Spare Parts) sourcing and Electric Vehicle component sourcing, becomes an aggregate supplier. CapGrid has been able to reduce the supply chain complexity by ~90%, reduce procurement cost to zero and material cost by 3-5% for its customers.

CapGrid is currently getting 5,000+ different precision components manufactured through its supplier network of 300+ partners and fulfilling it to customer’s assembly line seamlessly owning delivery and quality in the process. Globally this segment is worth $1,000 Bn+ in the automotive space itself. CapGrid is committed to utilizing this fresh funding infusion to deepen its technology infrastructure, talent acquisition and scale up cloud manufacturing with its supply partners.

Speaking on the funding round, Cofounder & CEO, Dheeraj says “We have digitalized the entire Source-to-Deliver process. CapGrid is working closely with multiple automotive and industrial manufacturers as a strategic partner for the supply of precision parts & components. Our technology stack and supplier aggregation capability helps customers reduce operational complexity and focus on innovation. With our decentralized global supply network, we can cater to direct material needs to OEMs and Tier 1s across the globe.”

Himanshu, Cofounder and COO, who closely works with the supplier ecosystem says, “CapGrid has illuminated manufacturing capabilities of 30,000+ suppliers across 15 countries and identified thousands of suppliers operating at 50-60% capacity. We allow them to focus, utilize and innovate on their core manufacturing capabilities by bringing aggregated manufacturing demand.”

Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, expressed that “We at Nexus are very excited about partnering with CapGrid as they revolutionise precision components sourcing and procurement for the automotive manufacturing sector via their robust network of cloud manufacturers. They are already working with leading OEMs on strategic initiatives like indigenisation, light-weighting, EV transition, procurement consolidation and value engineering. We see India being a global leader in manufacturing in the years ahead and feel CapGrid will increasingly be a partner of choice for OEMs looking to build high quality and agile supply chain while improving margins and OTIF significantly.”

Vyom Agarwal, Sr. Vice President at ACE (Action Construction Equipment ltd.), says that “There is a need to reduce the operational complexity of automotive and industrial manufacturing. We have engaged CapGrid as  a single window in place of a cluster of suppliers mainly in hardware category to reduce our inventory, consolidate our buying  and bring down supply chain complexity”

Intequant advisors acted as exclusive Financial advisors while JSA Law and Sarvaank Associates was legal and secretarial advisor.

CapGrid is an end-to-end source-to-deliver company for the low complexity direct material spend focused on the automotive and industrial manufacturers. The company leverages an AI-enabled sourcing platform with more than 30,000 manufacturers and their deep capability intelligence to run sourcing 10X faster. They have been able to reduce the sourcing and procurement complexity significantly, reduce inventory by half and reduce material cost by 5% for leading manufacturers. The innovative idea of starting such a venture was incorporated in December 2019 and it became functional in January 2021.

Headquartered in Gurgaon, company also has office in Bangalore and warehouses in Hosur, Rajkot, Jaipur and Faridabad.  CapGrid was founded by Dheeraj Kumar Tiwari and Himanshu Singh Raghuvanshi. The two founders have extensively worked with manufacturers in India, the US, and Japan for more than ten years. They are both former management consultants. The founders saw a gap in the market globally where manufacturers were carrying out intricate direct material procurement procedures manually and slowly and, based on their observation, they used their expertise to overcome this flaw. This is when CapGrid was incepted.