DC-area startup raises $10M to streamline government bids using generative AI

A startup aiming to simplify the government contracting process recently landed major funding to continue expanding its team. 

Procurement Sciences AI raised $10 million during its Series A round, according to a Tuesday announcement. Founded in 2022 by Christian Ferreira, the company works with businesses in streamlining, responding to and winning government contracts. It uses AI to sort through and analyze documents, helps match businesses to opportunities and builds first drafts of proposals. 

Ferreira is a former United States Marine Corps sergeant and War in Afghanistan veteran who worked in government contracting after his military service. He’s looking to remedy “pain points” in the procurement process, like manually sifting through hundreds of pages of documents.  

Procurement Sciences AI has about 125 customers across several sectors. Currently, the staff headcount is 16 with a few contractors, but that will change with this new funding. Ferreira said that this staff works remotely “with a heavy presence in the DC/Arlington area,” and that the company is considering future offices in Tysons and Reston areas. 

With the funds raised in this round, founder and CEO Ferreira said he plans to expand the team across positions including AI and software developers, a senior product manager and account executives. In the past few weeks, Procurement Sciences AI has hired six people, and the plan is to hire eight to 10 more staffers by the end of the year, Ferreira said. 

One reason Ferreira knew it was time to fundraise was because of the need to expand the team. 

“Up until now, we’ve been growing so quickly and been very constrained, as far as everyone’s been doing multiple roles — the classic startup lifestyle,” Ferreira said. “Now, we finally have the additional capital … that we can bring on more people.” 

The round was led by the technology-focused investment firm Battery Ventures, with follow-on investment from Tower Research Capital, K Street Capital and Blu Ventures. The Series A announcement dropped around the same time as PitchBook’s latest Venture Monitor report, which said that DMV venture capital had a quieter first quarter of 2024. Of those numbers, $49 million was invested in 12 deals within DC proper. 

Brandon Gleklen from Battery Ventures will join the Procurement Sciences board, as will Jared Young from Tower Research. The latter funder previously contributed $1 million to Procurement Sciences AI’s pre-seed, (the company ultimately skipped doing a seed round), contributing to a total of $1.135 million raised before the Series A. 

Ferreira knew Battery Ventures was the right fit from the beginning of the round, he said: On the first day the raise opened, the international investment firm submitted a term sheet. Battery Ventures also has several partners with a great amount of experience. These guidance and advisory aspects are important to the founder. 

“Now we have all these advisors,” Ferreira said, “advisors that were top chief revenue officers at top companies … that come in and can work with my team — not only me, but the entire team — and advise us in the right directions.”