The business of platforms for purchasing goods and services — in other words, procurement — is alive and well. Case in point, Zip, a startup developing procurement software, yesterday announced its $100 million Series C funding led by Y Combinator with participation from CRV and Tiger Global.
Zip CEO Rujul Zaparde says that the financing, which values Zip at $1.5 billion, will be put toward “new applications of generative AI” and “encouraging adoption” across the startup’s customer base.
“In the near term, we’re looking to add new AI-based capabilities to the Zip platform that will streamline the end-to-end intake-to-pay process,” Zaparde told TechCrunch in an email interview. “We believe there’s huge potential for AI in procurement to improve efficiency and synthesize insights that can make our customers’ lives easier.”
Zaparde and Lu Cheng, the company’s second co-founder, started Zip at the height of the pandemic in July 20...
