French startup Granit is building an all-in-one software-as-a-service product focused on small manufacturing companies. And it’s grown significantly since I first covered the company as it has tripled its revenue in the last six months.
That’s why the startup raised an €8 million Series A round ($8.7 million at today’s exchange rate) with two of its main investors – Point Nine and Fundamental. In fact, Granit tells me this is Point Nine’s first lead investment in a Series A round. This is an interesting data point because Point Nine has a good track record when it comes to B2B SaaS investments.
Accelio Capital, Rays Sherpas’ philanthropic vehicle Fitchers, and several business angels are also investing in Granite, including Rodolphe Ardant from Spenddesk, Nicolas Dessagne, co-founder of Algolia, and Jesse Tunay-Bukalo at TravelPark.
Granite is a vertical SaaS, which means that the startup is building a product that is specifically designed to meet the needs of an industry. Due to the background of the founder, Granit is focusing on manufacturing companies.
And it’s an interesting option because there’s a long tail of small construction companies that don’t have the tools they need to track their projects, generate quotes, manage team members, and handle relationships with subcontractors. So Granite Creations is creating a mini ERP of sorts for SMBs. Big manufacturing companies are not going to switch to Granite but if you are running only a small company then there is no point in using full fledged ERP.
Since manufacturing typically takes several months, it can be difficult to track margin at any given point in time. Customers pay in several installments and construction companies gradually spend the money. Having a co-pilot like Granit could improve the planning strategy of construction companies.
“We have been iterating with our customers and prospects for the past 2 years to build a powerful, yet easy-to-use solution. Granite has now proven to be mature enough as a product to accelerate its customer acquisition. enabled, while we continue to serve our customers better and better with more possibilities inside our product.”
Apart from getting more customers, Granit has a long roadmap ahead. Once the platform is actively used by a set of construction companies, Granite can offer additional services, such as financial products or deeper integration with third-party services. In other words, startups have a shot at digitizing and an industry that can benefit from modern software tools.
Image credit: Granite
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