AI software firm Zip valued at $2.2 billion in latest funding round
Summary
Zip will use the $190 million raised in the Series D round for research and development, expanding its suite of artificial intelligence solutions, and supporting global expansion with a focus on Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This funding round saw participation from new investors DST Global, Adams Street, and Alkeon, along with existing backers Y Combinator and CRV. Zip was co-founded in 2020 by Rujul Zaparde and Lu Cheng and offers companies an AI-powered platform to streamline their procurement, which is the process of acquiring goods and services necessary for business operations, and mitigate risk. "Companies are wasting billions of dollars and countless hours navigating byzantine approval processes, dealing with security risks, and manually entering data," co-founder and CEO Rujul Zaparde said in a statement. "Zip has already proven that we can fix that, saving our customers billions of dollars and thousands of hours of time — and our new round of funding will allow us to continue to revolutionize business spending," Zaparde said.