Sustainability-minded startup Kloopify closed a $1.5M seed round led by Black Tech Nation Ventures

The raise was led by Black Tech Nation Ventures, the firm launched in 2021 by Kelauni Jasmyn, Sean Sebastian and David Motley with a mission of funding early-stage founders from underrepresented backgrounds. Other participants were Innovation Works, Hypothesis, The Fund Midwest, The Unity Now Fund and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Daniela Osio, Kloopify’s CEO and cofounder, said the funding is the next step in furthering the company’s mission to help businesses grow their revenue while engaging in environmentally sustainable purchasing practices.

“We are really excited about this funding, especially in a market where only businesses with huge market opportunities are getting funded,” Osio told Technical.ly. “So it’s an honor to be included among those and we are excited to continue to build out technology here in Pittsburgh and to delight customers around the world.”

Osio feels especially gratified that Kloopify — one of Technical.ly’s 2022 RealLIST Startups — would be backed by Black Tech Nation Ventures, which focuses on inclusivity.

“I noticed most significantly that when we spoke to them, it was like speaking to somebody without any of those unconscious biases” often seen in other funders, Osio said. “They were really looking at the technology, the team and the opportunity and they were able to come to the conclusion that it really made sense for us to join forces, so that we can build Kloopify to achieve the heights that we both know it can be.”

Kloopify cofounders Daniela and Ignacio Osio. (Courtesy photo)

From Black Tech Nation Ventures’ side of things, the $50 million fund’s leaders are proud to have Kloopify represent its first Pittsburgh-based investment.

“We’re pleased to have CEO Daniela Osio join our prior four investments — all high-potential software companies with diverse leadership teams,” Sebastian told Technical.ly via email. (The firm’s first was Cleveland-based BlendEd, in December 2021.) “Kloopify is an early leader in the fast-growing field of supply chain sustainability, helping clients like the City of Pittsburgh better understand the carbon emissions from their purchased goods and services, an area where they previously had limited information.”

This comes on the heels of the company’s pilot program with the City of Pittsburgh in which the platform was used to take in data from $71 million in purchases across more than 1,400 suppliers. The end goal was to help the city understand greenhouse gas emissions from our purchased goods and services. Kloopify was a member of the City’s 2022 PGH Lab cohort.

“The City of Pittsburgh is a pioneer in integrating sustainability into their procurement organizations and by leveraging Kloopify they were able to not only save time and money, but were able to really focus their efforts, their reduction efforts, so that they can make meaningful and large-scale strides towards their own 2030 goals,” Osio said.

Next up for Kloopify, per its CEO, will be building new features for its software to improve the overall experiences of the companies that use the platform. The fresh funding will also go toward expanding Kloopify’s staff. Currently the company has a modest team consisting of Osio as the CEO, Ignacio Osio as cofounder and COO, and Jonathan Perlman as product manager. Down the line, Kloopify aims to hire people for business development, marketing, sales and engineering roles.

“We’re really excited to answer the call of these organizations and these companies, by allowing them to leverage technology and actually achieve those impacts reducing sustainability goals,” Osio said.