By Aisling Finn on Tuesday 23 February 2021
Tallinn-based startup Katana has raised $16m to date and will add Atomico partner Ben Blume to its board following the latest injection of capital.
Katana, a fintech that specialises in manufacturing ERP (enterprise resource planning) for SMEs has raised an $11m Series A.
The startup helps SMEs in manufacturing to sell their locally produced products on a global scale, providing them with the tools to scale production, better track inventory and sell products online.
Katana's Series A round was led by venture capitalist Atomico with participation from fintech-friendly VC firm 42Cap and other notable angel investors, such as Ott Kaukver, CTO at Checkout.com and former CTO at Twilio, Sten Tamkivi, CPO at Topia and Kairi Pauskar, former HR architect at TransferWise (now Wise) and early investor in 42Cap.
To date, Katana has raised $16m with the latest injection of funding to be used to expand its operations and product offering,
In a blog posted this morning, Atomico wrote: Atomico is proud to announce our investment in Katana, another milestone in our long commitment to the Estonian ecosystem and belief in Estonian-build engineering and product that starts in our roots in Skype, to our journey with Pipedrive since Series B, and now our partnership with the team at Katana.”
“This is a company with the ambition to define a category with relentless customer-focus and meet the needs of a community underserved by technology, all ingredients we think set the team up to be Estonia’s next global success.”
As part of the deal, Atomico partner Ben Blume will be joining the company’s board.
Kristjan Vilosius, Katana co-founder and CEO added: “For the first time since the 1970s when large-scale offshoring began, local manufacturers who can respond to the localised, bespoke demands of customers are coming into their own.”
“These are entrepreneurs for whom manufacturing is a craft and a passion, but they are being held back by outdated software. Their current choices are either spreadsheets or clunky ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ software that’s not built for the specific needs of small- and medium-sized manufacturers.”
Founded in 2017 by Hannes Kert, Kristjan Vilosius, and Priit Kaasik, Katana helps SMEs to scale their businesses, enabling them to streamline workflow, boost productivity and enable inventory control.
Katana has worked with more than 1,500 manufacturing businesses across the world, collaborating with companies from New Zealand to the US and provides integrations with the likes of Shopify, Amazon, Quickbooks and Xero to name but a few.
