A fast-growing Louisville area startup has recently closed on an unspecified amount of seed capital in an ongoing fundraising effort.
Vsimple, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm founded in late 2020, secured its first institutional funding in a round led by Airwing Ventures. Render Capital and Elevate Ventures were the other named investors in the round, which also included several unnamed investors.
Buddy Bockweg, CEO and co-founder of Vsimple, said the New Albany, Indiana-based company isn't disclosing the total investment just yet, as its initial fundraising goal was exceeded.
"We've had more interest than we actually have room for in the round, so we're trying to see how much we really need," he said, noting that he expects to have the fundraising effort wrapped up before the end of February.
As I reported last summer, Vsimple was spun out of another supply chain-centric startup, AxisPoint Alliance. It developed software that aims to simplify workflow for manufacturers, distributors and dealers by pulling order and quote management, documentation, stage gate approvals, communication and collaboration and data reviews into one efficient platform.
The platform quickly gained traction among those industry segments in its first year, spurring Vsimple's current efforts to scale. It has 10 employees now, and will look to grow to 70 employees — likely a conservative estimate, executives say — at its new headquarters in downtown New Albany by 2025.
Bockweg said the seed investment will give the company about a year of runway to continue to prove the software has value and the potential to grow into something significant.
"Our strategy is working and the value of our business is increasing exponentially," he said. "So yeah, we have a lot to prove this year, and we have built a team and a product to be able to do just that."
A large portion of the fresh capital will be used to increase Vsimple's sales and marketing efforts around its unique, direct-to-consumer go-to-market strategy. Bockweg said many business-to-business SaaS companies use third-party consultancies to sell their products, but Vsimple wants to do it "the hard way" in order to build longstanding relationships with their clients.
Alex Reed, chief commercial officer, compared the strategy to his time at Big Ass Fans. He said the Lexington, Kentucky-based company was the first big fan manufacturer to sell directly to its clients, and now Vsimple is working to do the same.
"That was a big part of the draw for me here — I saw an opportunity where nobody was delivering technology in this way," Reed said. "So it's not just the product, it's the actual go to market strategy and post-purchase relationship that drives the most value for the business. And that's why we've been able to attract talent here already by saying we're not gonna do it like everybody else.
"We decided early on that the only way to [go-to market] is the right way to do it — the hard way."
Vsimple highlighted a few metrics that showcase the impact the platform has had for organizations thus far: ProLift Toyota Material Handling, an eight-location forklift dealer with hundreds of employees, has been using the platform for several months and has increased its total number of users by more than 10-times since initial implementation. The company also said its customers have reported organization-wide email traffic reduction of more than 55%, two-times faster order processing time and overall operational efficiency gains of more than 30%.
In a news release, Dan Beldy, partner at Airwing Ventures, said his firm was impressed with Vsimple's workflow platform and the demonstrable return on investment its customers are reporting, noting "there is real product market fit."
"Partnering with organizations to understand their specific industry needs and delivering a solutions-oriented service is the hallmark of all successful SaaS companies," Beldy said.
Vsimple, one of KY Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022, anticipates it will post triple-digit growth over the next 12 months with a combination of existing customer growth and new client onboarding. Bockweg reiterated the company has the right people, right products, right place and the right timing to be successful.
"We want to be a catalyst for the technology ecosystem here regionally," he said. "Our charge is bigger than just building a hugely successful business... we want to have an impact on people. We also want to have an impact on our community."
