SMB Marketplace Kinnek Raises $20M

Kinnek, the New York-based online marketplace that helps small businesses manage purchasing and find suppliers, has raised $20 million in Series B funding, TechCrunch reported on Thursday (Oct. 15), bringing the total amount raised by the company to $33 million. In addition to the lead investor, Thrive Capital, the company’s backers in this latest round include earlier investors, a roster that boasts Sierra Ventures, Matrix Partners, Angelpad and Version One Ventures. There is also an individual investor on the list, AngelList’s Naval Ravikant.

The funds are earmarked to go toward hiring new staff to add onto Kinnek’s 30-person roster and also expanding to new technology and client verticals.

In the meantime, the company has 20,000 businesses, along with 2,000 suppliers, using the platform, and the Kinnek marketplace has been striking as much as “millions of dollars worth of deals” on a weekly basis, said Cofounder Karthik Sridharan.

Kinnek estimates that its total addressable market spans United States businesses with up to 100 employees and about $20 million in annual sales. Those companies spend more than $2.2 trillion annually on capital equipment, according to several sources, including Visa and Intuit. And at the same time, it is free for buyers to use the Kinnek marketplace, with company revenues coming from suppliers paying a broker fee. Kinnek also gets a slice of each transaction that is completed using its technology.

[bctt tweet=”Kinnek estimates that its total addressable market spans United States businesses with up to 100 employees and about $20 million in annual sales.”]

“In the [business-to-business] world, there’s nothing like a Yelp to help you understand the reputation of a particular factory,” Sridharan told TechCrunch — and that helps bring stickiness to relationships. Suppliers can answer questions that appear on dedicated forums from would-be customers to gather up reputation points.

In reference to other capital spending plans, Kinnek said it will expand the business range offered through the platform, with an emphasis on hotels and farms.

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