Keychain Secures $5M for European Expansion in AI Manufacturing

# Keychain

Brands are always on the hunt for ways to efficiently source packaging materials and ingredients to keep up with consumer demand. Yet, even in today's world, this often means trudging through countless trade shows. Enter Keychain, an AI-driven platform designed to swiftly link the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector with manufacturing partners. With a database boasting over 30,000 manufacturers and 20,000 brands and retailers, Keychain has just secured a $5 million investment, spearheaded by Bright Pixel Capital, the venture capital arm of the European retail giant Sonae Distribuição, which owns the European retailer Continente. Keychain's founders, Oisin Hanrahan (CEO) and Umang Dua, previously launched the home services marketplace Handy, which was later snapped up by ANGI Homeservices. They teamed up with Jordan Weitz to start Keychain. "There are easily 200 to 300 trade shows a year for manufacturers," Hanrahan shared with TechCrunch. "One of them draws 70,000 attendees. Brands and retailers shell out a ton of money just to connect, and there's no digital solution for this — plus, no single manufacturer or retailer can harness AI to organize this data. We've poured about $3 million into building our data asset, and I reckon we're 10 to 15 times more efficient thanks to our AI capabilities." He pointed out that traditional brokers have long made profits by exploiting information gaps, which in turn hikes up the cost of goods. Keychain, however, is using AI to cut out these fees and other expenses. "We rolled out the platform just under a year ago, and it took a couple of months to really get going," he said. "Once we nailed it, the data took off, and everything started clicking." "Brands and retailers use our platform to submit projects. They're currently putting in over a billion dollars worth of projects, and we've started selling to U.S. manufacturers a few months back," he added. Hanrahan also mentioned that Keychain is gearing up to launch two new platforms — one focused on packaging, the other on ingredients — and is taking a strategic investment from one of Europe's biggest retailers. "We're not spilling the beans on the exact timing, but we're planning to launch in Europe later this year," he said. Since November 2023, Keychain has raised a total of $38 million from top venture firms like BoxGroup, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and SV Angel, as well as CPG giants such as General Mills, The Hershey Company, and Schreiber Foods.

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