Analysis
Scimplify, a Bengaluru-based startup that uses AI to speed up specialty-chemical and critical-material manufacturing, raised $25 million in an all-equity strategic round led by Hitachi Ventures, according to TechCrunch. New investors Henkel and Teknor Apex -- both existing Scimplify customers -- joined the round alongside existing backers Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, Omnivore and 3one4 Capital.
The company declined to disclose its valuation, but a person familiar with the deal put it at $250 million, up from $150 million after a $40 million Series B in March 2025. Total equity funding now stands at $80 million.
From research lab to 500 factories
Founded in 2023 by co-founder Sachin Santhosh, Scimplify runs a proprietary AI platform called Scinode that identifies production routes for specialty chemicals and critical materials, then matches them to manufacturing facilities and tracks quality and regulatory requirements through the process. The company develops processes at its own research facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad before transferring them to a network of more than 500 partner factories, about 90% of which are in India, for commercial production. TechCrunch reported the company has, in some cases, gone from customer specifications to finished material in two months, against an industry-typical 12 to 18 months.
Scimplify's current focus includes tungsten derivatives recovered from scrap and rare-earth materials -- both categories where manufacturing is heavily concentrated in China, which is the supply-chain anxiety driving renewed investor interest in alternative sourcing across defense, semiconductors and AI infrastructure investing broadly. The company counts TDK, BASF and Hitachi among its named customers, serves more than 1,000 customers in over 40 countries, and employs about 340 people, including roughly 70 scientists, with teams in India, the U.S., Japan, Indonesia and the UAE.
The numbers behind the raise
Scimplify says its annualized revenue run rate has roughly tripled year over year to about $200 million, with a target of $400 million over the next year.
Its U.S. run rate alone has grown sixfold, from $10 million to about $60 million, now representing roughly 30% of the business, while customers outside India have grown from under 5% of revenue 18 months ago to more than half today.
The company says it has been EBITDA-positive for the past two months and expects to turn profitable after tax this month. It plans to spend about $7.5 million of the new round on U.S. manufacturing and go-to-market expansion and $2 million on further Scinode development.
Those growth claims are Scimplify's own, and the $250 million valuation is sourced to a person familiar with the deal rather than the company itself -- standard caution for any round where the company won't confirm its own price. And despite the China-decoupling pitch, 90% of Scimplify's manufacturing footprint is still inside India; the U.S. and Japan network this round is meant to fund remains a stated plan rather than a built-out one.
