London-based Vamstar, an AI-powered global B2B healthcare marketplace, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $9.5M (approximately €9M) in a Series A round of funding.
The round was led by Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC) and Dutch Founders Fund (DFF). Existing investors btov Partners and Antler also participated.
Terry Chou, Partner at Alpha Intelligence Capital, says, “We see a tremendous opportunity in a market that is largely underserved for the Vamstar platform to organise the procurement system in the healthcare industry. The company’s advanced Natural Language Processing capability sets them apart from other offerings. Paired with the strategic vision of the founders Praful, Richard, and Vishesh, Vamstar is setting the standard for procurement-enablement in healthcare.”
Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC) is a global VC fund investing in deep AI/Machine Learning technology-based companies. It backs startups in the Series A to Series D stages. AIC teams operate out of San Francisco, Paris, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Capital utilisation
Vamstar says it will use the funds to accelerate its market and product development plans, and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance its consumables and generics exchange platform.
It will also use the funds to improve data quality for faster e-commerce, and digitise procurement and sourcing processes for both buyers and suppliers across the industry.
Digitising healthcare commerce
Vamstar was founded in 2019 by Praful Mehta, Richard Freeman and Vishesh Duggar to tackle the problem at the root of sourcing and procurement transformation failures: data integrity and user engagement.
The company combines functionality for streamlining healthcare sourcing and procurement processes by using Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing. This helps connect billions of data points across the supply chain network, providing real-time market intelligence and enabling digital commerce through a common e-procurement platform.
Founder Praful Mehta says, “Healthcare supply chains are under tremendous pressure with ongoing crises like COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and rising inflation. There is very little data available to help healthcare procurement managers and suppliers make decisions in real-time.”
“At Vamstar, our goal is to empower supply chain professionals, clinicians, hospital administrators and their suppliers to collaborate in innovative ways to create meaningful relationships. It is only by enabling a shared vision for collaboration, fueled by better data and insights, that we can deliver greater value for all stakeholders and the wider community within the healthcare ecosystem,” adds Mehta.
The company’s platform connects both buyers and suppliers electronically to automate transaction and process flow across the supply chain on a global scale.
Currently, the platform is used by businesses and organisations connecting suppliers, such as pharmaceuticals, consumables, medical devices, and digital technology companies, with public and private buyers, such as hospitals, laboratories, health insurances, clinics, corporations, universities or Group Purchasing Organisations (GPOs).
Services provided to buyers and suppliers
Through the Vamstart platform, buyers use Machine Learning to search across suppliers and their catalogues, launch tenders and sourcing events using automated workflows, receive bids and quotes in a prioritised sequence, and place orders electronically and automate the source-to-pay (S2P) processes.
Suppliers, on the other hand, can get prioritised access to tenders, RFXs, and direct orders from 86,000 hospitals and clinics across 100+ countries directly or within their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms. Besides, they also get access to Machine Learning (ML) forecasts and Natural Language Processing (NLP) enriched catalogue and tender award data with virtual supplier profiles, and receive orders electronically and automate the order-to-cash (O2C) processes.
Brief about the investors
The Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) is an early-stage VC that primarily invests in marketplaces and companies with strong network effects. The firm was founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs such as Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Miinto, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (fonQ), Bas Beerens (WeTransfer), Hidde Hoogcarspel (Spacebuzz), and Remco van Zanten (ex Booking, Zalando, BCG).
btov Partners is a VC firm focusing on technology startups since 2000. Its flagship Digital Tech fund focuses primarily on startups in the fields of data analytics, AI, fintech, SaaS, logistics, digital health, and digital marketplaces. With offices in Berlin, Zurich Munich, St. Gallen, and Luxembourg, the company invests nearly €90M across Europe every year. Some of its investments include SumUp, DeepL, Raisin DS, Facebook, Foodspring, ORCAM, Volocopter, and XING.
Founded in 2017 by Magnus Grimeland and a team of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and company builders, Antler is an early-stage VC firm with the vision to fundamentally improve the world. The VC says that its aim is to create thousands of companies globally that solve ‘real’ problems. So far, Antler has invested in and helped build over 400 companies in 30+ different sectors.
