Aims to expand aggressively across US and Europe
Karomi Technology, a leading packaging management SaaS platform (under the brand ManageArtworks) that digitizes the design to print process and reduces the time to shelf has raised USD $2M in Pre-Series A round led by Cornerstone Venture Partners Fund (CSVP Fund), with the current investor Ideaspring Capital joining the round. The funding will be used by the company to accelerate growth.
Founded by Vilva Natarajan in Chennai, ManageArtworks is an end-to-end packaging artwork management solution, that helps organizations from highly regulated industries such as Pharmaceuticals and CPG reach their markets faster while ensuring regulatory compliance. Karomi aims to revolutionize the packaging content and specification management space with this unique offering.
Brands with new product launches struggle by shuttling between multiple stakeholders trying to get their artworks right. In this hyper-competitive market, ManageArtworks empowers the brand with solutions that help them manage their packaging content, print and packaging specifications, and automate the artwork journey while helping them stay compliant. ManageArtworks suite of solutions has helped some of the world’s leading brands reduce their time to market by 80%.
The company will utilize the funds to bolster its presence in the US market and expand into Europe in addition to its existing presence in France. Karomi aims to build industry-first tech and data solutions including the use of AI and ML to optimize artwork design. The company has been on an encouraging growth trajectory over the past few years and aims to become the largest packaging artwork and data management solution in the world.
ManageArtworks is currently working with more than 4,000 brands, including large enterprises such as P&G, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Wockhardt, Dabur, Amul, JBS Group, Taylor Farms & TFE Wines, and the likes.
‘Packaging content, specifications, and artwork management is a significant challenge for organizations of all sizes around the world. Most packaging artwork iterations are caused by inconsistent packaging data. 58% of artwork iterations are caused by packaging content errors even in 2022. Centralized packaging data management systems are the need of the hour. Intelligent solutions that help shape packaging journeys for brands are the future and we are proud to be working on many industry-first solutions. This funding will also enable us to expand deeper into the US and European markets,’ said Vilva Natarajan, CEO, Karomi.
Nanika Kakkar, Investment Director, CSVP Fund, shared, “We believe ManageArtworks is targeting a globally relevant and complex need for multiple stakeholders in the value chain with an intelligent and uniquely positioned offering. Automating end-to-end journeys for workflow and compliance management, it is highly scalable with a wide array of local language support and compliance adaptability. With its Packaging Data Management platform, it acts as a single source of truth for the relaunch and even pushes them directly to online sales channels in GDSN-compliant formats. In this environment of ever-changing consumer behavior, a shorter time to market is the only way to stay relevant. We truly believe in the potential of the platform and are excited to be on the growth journey with Vilva.”
Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner & Founder at Ideaspring Capital, added “Karomi is building a world-class enterprise packaging software solution. We are excited to partner with Vilva and his team in their next journey of international expansion. We strongly believe that the R&D innovations they are working on will help them get a deeper foothold in the US and European markets.”
