Didero Raises $30M to Automate Manufacturing Procurement with Agentic AI Agents

Didero lands $30M to put manufacturing procurement on 'agentic' autopilot

Tim Spencer realized just how complicated manufacturing procurement can be while running Markai, an e-commerce startup in Asia, during the pandemic. "We had thousands of suppliers, and we were distributing products into dozens of countries around the world," Spencer (pictured left) told TechCrunch. His staff was overwhelmed by the manual complexity of sourcing suppliers, negotiating pricing, tracking orders, and managing payments. "I found myself running this big team that was not really set up for success," he said. He sold Markai in 2023, just as it was becoming clear that generative AI could streamline the most time-consuming procurement hurdles for manufacturers and distributors. Later that year, Spencer launched Didero alongside Lorenz Pallhuber (pictured center), a veteran of McKinsey's procurement practice, and Tom Petit, the former technical co-founder of Landis. Didero, whose mission is to automate many of the complexities of global procurement, just raised a $30 million Series A co-led by Chemistry and Headline, with participation from Microsoft's venture fund M12. "Global trade runs on natural language communication," Spencer said. "It's emails, WeChat, phone calls, purchase orders, and packing lists." Until the advent of generative AI, these fragmented pieces had to be tracked by humans who spent their days chasing suppliers and manually updating systems of record. Didero claims its platform can ingest that communication, putting a significant portion of the procurement workflow on autopilot. Didero functions as an agentic AI layer that sits on top of a company's existing ERP, acting as a coordinator that reads incoming communications and automatically executes the necessary updates and tasks. "The goal is to go from 'I need a good' to payment without having to lift a finger," Spencer said. Unlike Levelpath, Zip, or Oro Labs, which use AI to streamline corporate purchasing, Didero focuses on the supply chain. Its platform is designed for manufacturers and distributors who need to source raw materials and inputs required to build or sell their products. Didero has a few smaller competitors who can handle some of the tasks that the company does. For instance, Cavello and Pietra help brands source and negotiate pricing with manufacturers, but according to Spencer, these companies serve small and medium-sized companies and don't handle the full procurement process, from the first quote to the final payment. Didero has dozens of customers, but only named one, Footprint, a provider of sustainable, plant-based packaging.

Didero raises $30M early-stage round to expand agentic AI for enterprise procurement - SiliconANGLE

Didero raises $30M early-stage round to expand agentic AI for enterprise procurement Agentic artificial intelligence for enterprise procurement startup Didero Inc. announced today that it had raised $30 million in new early-stage funding to support product development and go-to-market expansion. Founded in 2023, Didero offers software that is intended to streamline manual and fragmented workflows in procurement and supply chain operations. The company's technology seeks to address the issue whereby many organizations continue to rely on email, spreadsheets and disconnected enterprise systems to manage supplier communications, purchase orders and order tracking. Didero's approach centers on deploying AI agents that integrate with existing enterprise resource planning and procurement systems to execute operational tasks directly within established workflows. The platform operates by connecting to a customer's core systems, such as enterprise resource planning platforms and related supply chain software, through application programming interfaces and secure integrations. Once connected, AI agents ingest structured and unstructured data from purchase orders, invoices, supplier messages and internal documentation. The system applies predefined business logic and executes actions based on the ingested data, such as updating order records, sending supplier communications, or escalating exceptions, while maintaining synchronization with source systems. Capabilities include automated supplier outreach, order status monitoring, discrepancy detection and exception management. The agents can also manage back-and-forth communication with vendors, follow up on confirmations and log updates directly into enterprise systems. "Procurement teams are being asked to manage increasingly complex supply chains with tools that were never designed for the pace or scale of today's trade," explains Tim Spencer, co-founder and chief executive officer of Didero. "Didero's AI agents handle the day-to-day operational work of procurement, allowing teams to spend less time chasing emails and exceptions and more time focusing on strategic decisions." The platform is also designed to handle repetitive procurement tasks that require coordination across multiple stakeholders, providing audit trails and maintaining records of actions taken within the workflow. The software is used by manufacturers, distributors and other organizations that manage complex supplier networks and high volumes of purchase orders. The Series A round was led by Chemistry VC and Headline Management Company, with M12 Ventures, Microsoft Corp.'s venture fund, also participating. "Didero applies AI agents directly to that operational layer in a way that materially changes how supply chain teams work and what they can achieve," said Kristina Shen, managing partner at Chemistry. "We believe this will become core infrastructure for companies that need to move faster, operate with more visibility and adapt to increasingly complex global trade." The new funding takes the total amount raised in Didero to approximately $37 million, according to data from Tracxn. The company had previously raised a seed round of $7 million in June 2024, which was backed by First Round Capital LP, Construct Capital, AI Grant, Box Group, Conviction Capital and Company Ventures.