MASON, Ohio, May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ConnXus, a supplier diversity technology platform, today announced that it has closed $5 million in Series "A" funding, led by Techstars Ventures, Serious Change L.P. and Impact America Fund.
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"This round of funding will significantly accelerate ConnXus' long-term impact on generating sustainable and diverse supply chains," said Rod Robinson, CEO and founder of ConnXus. "To date we've raised $10 million in investments, including participation from Techstars Ventures, CincyTech, Serious Change L.P., Impact America Fund, and several private angel investors."
ConnXus' cloud-based, supplier diversity sustainability dashboards open the door for procurement, supplier diversity, and supply chain professionals to access a wealth of global supply chain analytics. Robinson believes Techstars and the other investors are the right investors for the company to disrupt and add imperative value to the $10-billion supply chain and procurement software market.
Robinson founded ConnXus in 2010 as a result of his personal experience and frustration with the complexities associated with locating qualified diverse suppliers, tracking spending, maintaining diversity certifications, and reporting reliable results in accordance with corporate and government mandates. ConnXus now solves this problem with a user-friendly and cloud-based technology platform. "During my tenure as a procurement executive with responsibility for supplier diversity," he said, "I thought it was expensive and inefficient to pay for access to separate databases to search for minority-, women- , veteran-, and other classifications of diverse-owned businesses. ConnXus now makes it simple, with a single database of 1.7 million+ suppliers that combines all diversity classifications. Bid opportunities disseminated through the ConnXus platform have led to millions of dollars spent with diverse suppliers."
While minority- and woman-owned businesses represent more than 50 percent of all U.S. businesses, they only account for 6 percent of the $30 trillion in total annual revenue generated. Because small businesses provide 65 percent of net new jobs, it is imperative to foster an economic environment that supports the growth of small and diverse businesses. ConnXus is proud that 29 percent of its own employees are minority and 38 percent are women. This includes the hiring of COO and early investor Daryl Hammett, previously the highest-ranking African-American executive at the global retail giant Luxottica Retail, where he was a senior vice president & general manager running a $900-million brand. In support of young business leaders, Hammett has been a member of the prestigious, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) international Cincinnati Chapter since 2012.
"Not only does ConnXus align with our initiatives to serve high-performing, emerging technology companies, but they have created innovative software that directly improves diversity in the supply chain for startups and corporations," said David Cohen, Techstars' co-founder and managing partner. "Our investment in ConnXus is the latest investment from Techstars Ventures, our third fund, which is focused on seed and Series 'A' investments."
This investment by Techstars also comes on the heels of its commitment to the White House to increase diversity in tech entrepreneurship, as well as the Techstars Foundation's inaugural grants. Robinson is a founding member of the TechStars Foundation advisory board.
"Unprecedented in the supplier diversity space, this $5-million investment will redefine supplier diversity and inclusive procurement with a technology solution that is innovating economic inclusion analytics," said Hammett, investor and chief operations officer of ConnXus. "We will now be enabled to ramp up marketing and sales, augment our software engineering team, pursue global strategic partnerships, and add to our management team."
About ConnXus
ConnXus is a supplier diversity technology platform and certified minority-owned business (MBE) headquartered in Mason, Ohio. The cloud-based company helps small and diverse businesses, including woman- and minority-owned companies, grow by connecting them to Fortune 2,000 corporations.
About Techstars Ventures
Techstars Ventures is the venture capital arm of Techstars. Techstars Ventures has $265 million under management and they are currently investing out of their third fund totaling $150 million which is focused on Seed and Series A investments. They primarily co-invest alongside venture capital and angel communities in Techstars accelerator program graduates, new companies started by Techstars alumni, and companies formed by Techstars mentors.
SOURCE ConnXus, Inc.
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