Coverbase Raises $16M Series A to Scale AI-Powered Procurement Platform

Exclusive: With Customers Like Okta And Coinbase, Coverbase Raises $16M To Grow AI-Powered Procurement Platform

Coverbase, an AI-powered procurement platform, has raised $16 million in a Series A round led by Canapi Ventures, the startup tells Crunchbase News exclusively. Founded in 2024, San Francisco-based Coverbase aims to reinvent how enterprises vet and manage vendors in a "security-first" manner. Specifically, it uses artificial intelligence to automate and secure how large, regulated companies onboard new vendors and suppliers, such as software providers, consultants, contractors and service firms. Coverbase counts Nationwide, Coinbase, Okta and the Navy Federal Credit Union among its customer base. Co-founders CEO Clarence Chio and CTO Kao Zi Chong have impressive backgrounds. Chio also co-founded Unit21, a startup that helps businesses monitor fraudulent activities with its no-code software that has raised $92 million from the likes of Tiger Global Management. Chong is a former engineering manager at fintech giant Stripe. The pair started Coverbase to automate the procurement process "by weaving risk, security, and compliance decision-making directly into every stage of intake, due diligence, contracting, and ongoing monitoring." "What makes us different is that our AI agents don't just manage workflows, they actually perform the work," Chio, who currently teaches AI and cybersecurity at UC Berkeley, told Crunchbase News. Most competitors, he claims, build tools that help humans move through manual approval steps. (Competitors include the likes of Zip, Coupa, Ariba and Archer.) By being "AI-agents-first" instead of "workflow-first," Coverbase allows customers to onboard vendors faster, with less friction and stronger security outcomes, according to Chio. According to Verizon's 1 Data Breach Investigations report, breaches involving third parties reached 30% this year, up 2x compared to 2024, "driven in part by vulnerability exploitation and business interruptions." Investors appear to be pouring more money into AI-powered procurement startups lately. Examples include: * In late June, Levelpath, a provider of AI-enabled procurement tools, said it raised over $55 million in a Series B round led by Battery Ventures. The company's platform uses AI agents to autonomously handle procurement tasks for businesses. * In July, Parspec, a startup using artificial intelligence to improve efficiency in the construction industry supply chain, raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. * In October 2024, procurement startup Zip saw its valuation jump 47% after raising a $190 million Series D led by Bond. Fast growth Existing and new investors including Fika Ventures, TTV Capital, Pear VC, Valley Bank and Founders You Should Know also participated in Coverbase's Series A round. To date, the company has raised about $20 million. While Chio declined to reveal its valuation, he said the Series A represents "a roughly 4x increase" compared to its previously undisclosed $3.5 million seed round led by Fika. Chio also declined to reveal hard revenue figures, noting that Coverbase's customer base has grown 10x since the start of 2025. Overall, the startup has about 35 customers and operates on a usage-based SaaS pricing model that scales with the number of suppliers and risk assessments performed on its platform. Its customers range in size, with some having as few as 50 suppliers, and others being larger companies with over 50,000 suppliers. Besides those mentioned above, customers include General Bank of Canada, Live Oak Bank, Coastal Bank, Thread Bank, LiveView Technologies, Guardant Health, Rubrik, Alteryx and Bill. Coverbase is currently active in industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and technology because they "demand high levels of compliance and security," Chio noted. But the company is also expanding into telecommunications and critical infrastructure, and sees future opportunities in other highly regulated sectors such as energy and utilities, defense contracting, government, aerospace and aviation, medical devices and biotech, and payments and logistics. The company plans to use its new capital to expand into contract management and continuous security monitoring. It's also planning to quadruple its sales force to meet "accelerating enterprise demand." Presently, Coverbase has 12 employees. 'A real and persistent pain point' Walker Forehand, president and general partner at Canapi, said his firm was drawn to Coverbase because it believes the company is "solving a real and persistent pain point in enterprise procurement -- particularly in highly regulated, security-conscious sectors." "Vendor onboarding is typically slow, fragmented, and risk-prone," he wrote via email. "Coverbase is flipping that dynamic by using AI to make procurement faster, more secure, and strategically valuable." Forehand also believes that what sets Coverbase apart is its AI-native approach. "This gives enterprises a faster, smarter, and more secure way to adopt innovation without adding operational burden," he said. "It's not just about efficiency -- it's about turning procurement into a competitive advantage, which is a fundamentally different mindset from traditional solutions."

Coverbase raises $16.5M to expand its AI procurement and risk platform - SiliconANGLE

Coverbase raises $16.5M to expand its AI procurement and risk platform Artificial intelligence procurement and risk platform startup Coverbase Inc. revealed today that it had raised $16.5 million in new fuding to fuel expansion into new verticals and scale its risk-aware procurement platform beyond third-party risk management into the broader procurement lifecycle. Founded in 2024, Coverbase is a San Francisco-based company that is attempting to reimagine enterprise procurement by embedding security and risk management into supplier decisions. The company's platform is designed to replace legacy procurement systems that typically involve the use of manual forms, redundant questionnaires and siloed workflows. As a replacement, Coverbase offers an AI-native platform that automates vendor intake, risk assessment, contracting and ongoing monitoring. The platform orchestrates end-to-end procurement workflows, from sourcing and vendor onboarding to contract management and purchase order issuance. It then layers in continuous compliance and security oversight that allow organizations to reduce blind spots and accelerate technology adoption. Using the platform, Coverbase claims its customers achieve a 90% to 92% reduction in procurement workloads, freeing up teams to focus on strategic rather than administrative tasks. One notable feature of the platform is what Coverbase calls its "AI-agents first" approach, one where, rather than simply providing workflow tools, intelligent automation is used to perform tasks such as supplier screening, data extraction and control validation. "Traditional procurement isn't just broken, it's actively hindering progress," explains Clarence Chio, chief executive officer and co-founder of Coverbase. "Risk and compliance teams spend countless hours chasing paperwork instead of identifying and mitigating real threats, which slows innovation adoption while leaving critical risks that are being exploited regularly." "With AI and agent-based automation, Coverbase is eliminating repetitive, low-value tasks, freeing businesses to focus on reducing risk and accelerating deployment of new technology innovations," added Chio. Coverbase has more than 40 customers, including Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Navy Federal Credit Union, Coinbase Global Inc., Okta Inc., Bill.com Holdings Inc., Coastal Community Bank, Live Oak Bancshares Inc. and ServiceTitan Inc. The Series A round was led by Canapi Ventures, with Fika Ventures, TTV Capital, Pear VC, Valley National Bancorp and Founders You Should Know also participating. "Coverbase is eliminating the inefficiencies in the procurement process at scale with an AI-powered platform that turns vendor onboarding into a competitive advantage," said Walker Forehand, co-founder and general partner at Canapi Ventures. "In just over one year, the team has delivered measurable return on investment by helping some of the world's most security-conscious organizations cut procurement timelines while reducing third-party risk." The new funding takes the total amount raised by Coverbase to $20 million, with the company having previously raised a seed round of $3.5 million.