A Chicago-based startup that is building a B2B online marketplace for real estate developers to buy products for their properties has raised a new round of funding.
Purchasing Platform, founded in 2012, announced Thursday that it raised $3.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Method Capital. Participate Capital and Old Town Capital also participated.
The new financing brings Purchasing Platform’s total funding to more than $6 million, according to Crunchbase.
The startup provides home and office products, ranging from kitchen appliances to light fixtures, to the manufactured housing industry, including trailer homes and multi-family housing units. Purchasing Platform’s clients also include automotive dealerships, hotels, commercial real estate operators, and campgrounds and RV parks.
Purchasing Platform sells millions of products from more than 50 vendors. Using the startup's platform, real estate companies are able to standardize products in their homes cheaper and faster.
Its vendor partnerships include Home Depot, Lowes, Wayfair, Sherwin Williams, BEHR, Style Crest, Blevins, Office Depot and Staples.
With the new funding, the startup plans to broaden its client base into student housing, single family, senior living, self-storage and other commercial real estate sectors. The money will also go toward improving the company’s tech and hiring more employees across customer success, order success, merchandising, account management, marketing and tactical buying departments.
“By providing an easy-to-use, fully customizable marketplace that supports the specific needs of our manufactured housing customers as well as their preferred local, regional, and national vendors, we have quickly become a ‘one-stop shop’ for the industry to rely on,” said Dave Bowen, CEO of Purchasing Platform, in a statement.
Before joining Purchasing Platform, Bowen was the co-founder and CEO MM4, a-Chicago based tech company acquired by Xchanging in 2013. Purchasing Platform was originally founded by Peter Hepner and he now serves as the company’s chief strategy officer.
In August, Purchasing Platform was named No. 1,146 on the Inc. 5000 list, reporting 363 percent three-year growth and revenues of $4.2 million 2018.
