Olive announced a $1 million seed round to fuel growth of its software that helps companies streamline IT procurement.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based startup aims to replace a traditionally manual evaluation process with spreadsheets, meetings, and word docs. Its platform lets vendors promote their products and helps buyers evaluate the options. The company says it can help trim the enterprise software buying process to less than eight weeks, versus several months or even years.
“Put simply, buying without Olive is like selling without a CRM,” said CEO and co-founder Chris Heard.
Olive initially saw impact on its sales due to the pandemic as many of its customers are large restaurant chains. The company widened its reach and is now seeing business accelerate, Heard said.
“The fact that companies from across the globe are all trying to find innovative new solutions to existing and new challenges, coupled with tight budgets not allowing for traditional, expensive consulting engagements, is driving significant growth for Olive,” he said.
Heard previously co-founded a Canadian leggings retailer and was a sales manager at Fuze. His co-founder Dan Harrison was a technical solutions consultant at Hyperwallet Systems. They both previously worked together at Mobify.
Olive recently graduated from Techstars Seattle. The company has five employees. Active Capital led the seed round, with participation from Techstars and Novator.
“Today, buying enterprise software is full of bias & misaligned Incentives. Olive is unique in their approach & commitment to making the process more collaborative and free of bias,” Pat Matthews, founder Active Capital, said in a statement.
