Founded in 2021, Mitra Chem is a Silicon Valley-based battery manufacturer focused on innovation and sustainability. The clean energy startup is producing the world’s first lithium-ion battery materials that will combat climate change through decarbonization efforts and technology. Mitra Chem is establishing scale-up and commercial partnerships in the EV, energy storage, and defense markets.
Innovative battery materials
The challenges
With significant funding, Kante and the Finance team at Mitra Chem must be diligent with their spend management strategy.
“When you’re a pre-revenue organization, you need to spend your first dollar the same way you would spend your last,” Kante said.
Mitra Chem is currently in the research and development phase, which comes with its own set of AP and procurement challenges:
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Reactive spend management: Mitra Chem needed full visibility and control over its finances to avoid draining its funding via rogue spending.
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Manual, error-prone processes: With regular procurement of lab equipment and materials from hundreds of suppliers, Mitra Chem needed sophisticated procure-to-pay software to streamline its purchasing workflows and minimize human error.
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Usability requirements: The majority of purchasers at Mitra Chem are not finance professionals, but rather scientists and engineers, so the P2P software needed to have an intuitive, user-friendly interface.
The solution
To achieve unparalleled spend visibility and control, Mitra Chem selected and implemented Procurify’s comprehensive procure-to-pay software. For a fast-paced startup, the ROI from Procurify was almost instant.
“We were able to centralize a lot of our spend and start putting approval workflows around it, which is really critical,” said Kante.
Because of their frequent bulk spending (they have over 100 SKU numbers) with multiple vendors like Thermo Fisher, Thermo Scientific, Granger, and Uline to replenish lab equipment and materials, streamlining vendor management was important for Mitra Chem.
“Oftentimes, you’re just purchasing a lot from these folks over and over again,” said Kante, noting that Procurify PunchOuts have simplified and expedited their online purchasing experience with common vendors. “You can essentially request what you want directly on the website.”
Procurify has provided several benefits that have helped Mitra Chem drive innovation, including:
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Streamlined approval workflows: As a pre-revenue company, the finance team at Mitra Chem adheres to proactive budget planning. Procurify helps streamline workflows for better control and faster cycle times, giving finance leaders real-time visibility on inventory and spend.
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Efficient bulk ordering: Procurify PunchOuts enables scientists and engineers at Mitra Chem to easily browse and place orders directly through a supplier’s website or custom catalog. Once approved, a purchase order is generated and items are automatically purchased, leaving a detailed audit trail.
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Adoption and user experience: Nearly every Mitra Chem employee — regardless of whether they have a finance background — uses Procurify’s intuitive interface and robust budgeting functionality, providing organization-wide accountability.
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Dedicated support: According to Kante, Procurify’s customer success team has been “extremely helpful” in supporting Mitra Chem through implementing Procurify, from creating guides and communications for change management.
Takeaways
Leveraging Procurify’s end-to-end procure-to-pay software – including its efficient purchasing and approval features – Mitra Chem’s finance team successfully managed early-stage funding by:
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Building a proactive and accountable spend culture
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Controlling spend with robust digital approval processes
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Encouraging company-wide adoption with user-friendly AP and procurement tools
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Improving their vendor management strategy with efficient purchasing
