---

SupplyHive simplifies the procurement process and allows companies to find and work with suppliers led by minority leaders.

July 27, 2021 03:10 PM KATHERINE DAVIS  Crain’s Chicago Business

A Chicago startup that’s simplifying procurement for businesses just raised new financing from a group of investors that includes a fund for underrepresented founders from former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson.

SupplyHive announced it raised $2 million in a seed round on Tuesday. Besides Thompson’s firm, Cleveland Avenue, participants included Steve Case’s Revolution Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Columbus-based LOUD Capital, which led the round.

Cleveland Avenue backed SupplyHive through its $70 million Cleveland Avenue State Treasurer Urban Success Fund, which was announced in March. The fund specifically invests in companies led by Black, Latino and female entrepreneurs in Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods. Cleveland Avenue has also backed Chicago companies like 86 Repairs and DrugViu.

Led by founder Mike Anguiano and President and CEO Lou Sandoval, SupplyHive makes software designed to help businesses centralize, standardize, scale and automate the supplier performance process using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company, launched in 2018, says its clients include Facebook, MARS Global, McDonald’s and Abbott.

SupplyHive also allows companies to find and work with suppliers led by minority leaders.

The new financing will be used to grow the startup’s sales and marketing teams, and further develop its product, Sandoval said in a statement. SupplyHive has raised about $4 million to date.

“The investment by these new diverse venture capital firms signals a growing trend in venture-backed startups diverse funds supporting diverse-founded companies, especially in the technology sector where there are so few diverse executives,” Sandoval said.

Read More: Chicago startup lands investment from Don Thompson’s diversity fund