PartnerSlate connects food brands with co-manufacturers, raises $4 million in funding

12-Jun-2023 - Last updated on 12-Jun-2023 at 14:46 GMT

Source: Getty/Monty Rakusen

The online marketplace PartnerSlate will “accelerate the growth of its online marketplace digitizing the $200-billion food and beverage contract manufacturing industry" with a $4m fundraise led by Supply Change Capital, according to its recent press release.

PartnerSlate's database includes nearly 6,000 co-manufacturers with the ability to search for projects that align with their specific equipment, capabilities, risk tolerance and capacity. With its funding PartnerSlate plans to invest in sales and marketing, and expand project management features to accelerate projects through production.

The emergence of retail innovations, like online-grocery and self-check out technologies, and direct-to-consumer distribution have lowered barriers to entry for new products, creating a heightened demand to develop streamlined manufacturing partnerships—these partnerships can take over 12 months to establish, causing delays in bringing products to market.

“PartnerSlate can cut a brand’s search for the right co-man from months to days,” said Vince Tseng, PartnerSlate’s co-founder and CEO in a press release. “Our approach replaces cold-calling with data science, helping both parties save hundreds of hours of following mismatched leads to dead ends.”

“We’ve seen a 3x growth in projects since our beta launch 4 months ago,” said Matt Suggs, co-founder and chief business officer. “Startups love that we can find the right-sized partners, Fortune 500 brands appreciate the breadth and speed of our network, and co-mans like that we are a one-stop shop to streamline business development.”

Digitization offers solutions and savings to the bottom line

As companies face disruptions and volatile costs along the supply chain, digitization offers solutions and savings to the bottom line. Systems like an electronic-data-interchange (EDI) allows businesses to exchange important documents and information electronically (like purchase orders and labels), reducing the need for manual data entry and enabling efficient communication between different parties.

Software company, Crstl, for example, facilitates B2B e-commerce between CPG brands and retailers, as reported previously in FoodNavigator-USA. The data platform offers automatic compliance testing, certification services and onboarding amenities through a no-code EDI.

Analytic technologies like AI and robotic process automation (RPA), as reported by FoodNavigator-USA, can help companies make more informed, strategic decisions on positioning distribution centers, integrating warehouse management and dialing in transportation systems, among others to reduce costs.

With more Millennial and Gen Z business owners contributing to the industry’s innovations, digital solutions are welcomed as these tools and products will not only facilitate the growth of their businesses but also generate new revenue streams. They expect these solutions to streamline workflows, making them more user-friendly and intuitive.