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Dennis Thankachan is n’t someone you ’d expect would launch a digital procurement startup .
After college , Thankachan snuff it to work out for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker . Two old age by and by , he pass on for a hedgerow monetary fund , PointState Capital , where he helped to manage fairness investing .
At PointState , which specializes in telecommunication , Thankachan say he run across an unexpected challenge : having to make multiple earphone birdcall and wait weeks to procure networking engineering science . inspire to judge modernizing the outgrowth , Thankachan foundedLightyear , a firm that assist company get internet , SD - WAN , and other essential networking base .
With Lightyear , Thankachan tell his end was to make the process of buying telecommunication infrastructure “ kind of like buying socks on Amazon . ” Historically , he says , it ’s been unmanageable for companies to receive data like what equipment should cost and where provider are available .
“ Prior to Lightyear , and still today , most enterprisingness purchase and manage their telecom with manual effort , spreadsheets , and electronic mail , ” Thankachan differentiate TechCrunch . “ Lightyear is the first and only software Cartesian product to digitize and automatise this total life cycle . ”
Lightyear pop the question the ability to select from networking religious service and find providers in a give area , sortable by cost . In its online market place , companies can interact with vendors and get price quotes . Once they make a purchase , Lightyear helps contend avail installation , and then optionally automatically renews the service when the contract is up .
Recently , Lightyear moved into stocktaking direction and bank bill payment . The chopine can supervise and pay telecommunication service invoices , as well as ground a system of record for an organization ’s web .
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Lightyear , which was establish in 2019 , now has over a thousand networking supplier partners and has processed quotes for tens of G of divine service , Thankachan says . The startup is managing millions of dollar mark of telecom spend for more than 300 customer , include Palo Alto Networks , Five Guys , Pandora Jewelry , and Teladoc .
It serve that there ’s pressure on buy departments to digitalise the fashion they mold . According to a late PwC digital procurance sketch of around 1,000 ship’s company , purchase department across all industries are calculate to digitize 70 % of their processes by 2027 .
This week , New York - base Lightyear closed a $ 31 million Series B support troll led by Altos Ventures , get the 35 - somebody startup ’s aggregate elevate to $ 79.6 million . The raw hard currency will be put toward product ontogenesis and “ endow more profoundly ” in customer experience and living improvement , Thankachan say .
“ The raise was opportunistic based on external interest , but allows the company to proactively invest in - depth within essence Cartesian product offering , new product offerings , and significant advance in client support , ” he tally . “ From here out , we do n’t designate to be reliant on outside capital for growth or existence , and should reach cash flow fault - even within current runway . ”
Ridge Ventures , Zigg Capital , Susa Ventures , and Amplo also participated in Lightyear ’s Series B.
