Knowde goes big with ingredient sourcing marketplace

19 Oct 2021 --- Knowde was born from the understanding that everything sold by beauty and personal care (BPC) companies begins with ingredients that are formulated to make the products consumers know, love and need. Starting from this point, Knowde delved into the traditional BPC ingredient sourcing and buying process.

“Many of those ingredients become the source of innovation and competitive advantage,” says Ali Amin-Javaheri, Co-founder and CEO. “But the chemical companies that supply these ingredients continue to do business the way they have for more than a century – offline – slowing the pace of innovation and making the buying journey more difficult than it needs to be.” 

Click to EnlargeAli Amin-Javaheri aims to open up the ingredients world. Source: Knowde.Knowde designed a marketplace, free for cosmetic scientists and buyers, that is designed to enable them to search, filter, collaborate, request samples and quotes and purchase raw materials according to their needs. Users can search by chemistry, International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) identifiers, application, function, ingredient origin, certifications and more to find the right products quickly. As a result, the startup chemical online shop describes itself as “a game changer” for BPC companies.

“Knowde is home to the largest portfolio of products from the most expansive range of suppliers on the planet, including small, medium, and large manufacturers,” Amin-Javaheri adds. Detailing how, to date, the ingredient marketplace has more than 100,000 products total and over 3,500 producer storefronts, Amin-Javaheri says this is “more than any distributor, marketplace or middleman organization in the history of the industry.” 

Users also have access to product documentation and formulations. “All of this gives them a massive unlock to accelerate innovation,” Amin-Javaheri says. “BPC companies utilize Knowde because they have an insatiable hunger to find new suppliers and ingredients.” It is the prominent demand for transparency among BPC consumers that is leading the industry’s business environment to mirror this need through the high availability and accessibility of product information.

Democratizing ingredients

Highlighting the popularity of digital platforms in enabling BPC companies to source industry ingredients for product creation, Ali Amin-Javaheri shares what its specific platforms give users access to in the BPC sphere: 

• More than 600 producers, including Croda, DSM, Sasol, Clariant and Roquette;
• Products across nearly 20 application areas and 100 different end uses; and
• Almost 18,000 documents, from datasheets to brochures, as well as the most comprehensive product collateral in the market: the Knowde Enhanced Technical Data Sheet (TDS).

Sharing what is driving the popularity of digital platforms that provide extensive insights into the contents of consumers’ sought-after BPC products, Amin-Javaheri notes: “In a word, innovation. BPC companies want the ability to respond to market trends quickly, innovate with agility and reduce time-to-market.” 

Click to EnlargeKnowde has raised US $72m in Series B Funding. Source: Knowde.Through utilizing online marketplaces such as Knowde, users have access to both large companies and companies that offer specialty ingredients as well as the ability to research, discover, learn, compare and purchase ingredients online. The digital nature of the marketplace is vital as it provides users with convenient online access to product catalogs and product information. Outside of the marketplace, Amin-Javaheri notes this information “would otherwise be hidden in PDFs and scattered across thousands of websites.”

For smaller companies in particular, trying to get answers or information from a big ingredients manufacturer is often challenging. In a bid to solve this dilemma, Knowde conceptualized and launched its Concierge service, which equips companies of all sizes with the ability to facilitate requests for information, documents, samples and quotes.

In today’s rapidly-changing BPC market, efficiency and high-quality service are at the top of the agenda. Placing emphasis on the buying journey, Amin-Javaheri details: “Research and development and procurement professionals want an efficient, seamless process from access to information, samples, pricing information, ultimately leading to an overall better end-to-end buying experience. Ingredient manufacturers have slowly been working towards adopting the online tools that customers have been demanding.”

The Knowde marketplace aims to give these companies instant digital transformation, with everything they need to provide their customers for a better online buying experience. The online platform also provides digital marketing tools to drive traffic to their storefronts, and advanced analytics to help guide data-based decision making. 

Measuring marketplace metrics

Meeting changing consumer expectations is a core challenge. Knowde strives to do this by continuously engaging with buyers to ask how it can improve the experience that it provides for them. The brand recently launched a suite of tools based on buyers’ input that are designed to make the buying experience better and faster, including:

• The Knowde MegaMenu, which provides an overview of trends, technologies and concepts for each of the markets that Knowde serves;
• A link that enables buyers to communicate directly with sellers to ask technical product questions, talk to sales representatives and inquire about pricing; and
• The ability to personalize and save searches that are relevant to the buyer’s interests. 

To help companies bolster their labeling claims, the one-stop-shop for trending ingredients currently contains more than 8,000 natural or naturally derived ingredients, another 2,300 that are organic, nearly 1,800 plant-based ingredients, about 1,300 non-GMO or GMO-free ones and more than 500 allergen-free items. All together, BPC companies can search among 225 different labeling claim options.

In addition to introducing new tools, Knowde recently expanded its presence to cover every major vertical across the chemical industry. It recently announced that it had raised US$72m in Series B funding led by Coatue. Existing investors Sequoia, Refactor Capital, Bee Partners and Cantos Ventures also participated in this round, alongside new investors Sound Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary; TQ Ventures, founded by Schuster Tanger, Andrew Marks, and Scooter Braun; K5 Global and Mantis VC, in partnership with The Chainsmokers. 

“These funds will be invested in product development for new buyer and supplier features and further enhancements to our ecommerce capabilities, with the goal of enabling BPC companies to negotiate contracts and transact business online,” details Amin-Javaheri. “We will continue to expand our portfolio of suppliers and products as well, and continue to identify opportunities to connect buyers and sellers in all regions of the globe.” 

By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist