VendorPM, a Toronto-based marketplace that connects property managers with reputable vendors, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The software-enabled marketplace aims to modernize the way property managers manage, source and procure service vendors. The startup currently manages a two-sided marketplace across Canada in support of both property managers and service vendors.
The platform supports over 400 building services across maintenance, operations, capital expenditures and professional services. In the past two years, VendorPM has scaled its business to cover more than 5,000 buildings, 30,000 vendors and 100 property management firms, including notable relationships with BentallGreenOak, Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson and Avison Young.
VendorPM CEO Emiel Bril told TechCrunch in an email that the startup was born out of his own experience within the service industry.
“I first entered the service industry at the age of 14, going door to door selling window cleaning services,” Bril said. “By the time I was 20, I had worked my way up to servicing commercial properties, which shed light on the major inefficiencies of vendor/property management relationships. After selling my window-cleaning business, I set out to streamline the way vendors and property managers work together under one single login, and that’s how VendorPM was born.”
VendorPM notes that property managers in North America spend billions to service their buildings each year but still rely on outdated methods such as email and Excel spreadsheets. The goal of the startup’s SaaS tool is to bridge this gap via its centralized platform and to allow property management companies to streamline and organize vendor data and operations.
The company aims to enhance day-to-day efficiency for site staff while enhancing visibility and control for head offices across four core functions, which include vendor management, sourcing, procurement and compliance. VendorPM says property managers turn to its platform to organize their vendor relationships and resources, while vendors use the platform to market their services and provide quotations and proposals.
The startup’s seed funding will be used to support its continued product innovation, hiring and expansion plans into targeted growth markets across the United States. Bril outlined that the funding will largely be allocated toward improving user experiences across the VendorPM platform. In terms of the future, Bril said the company’s expansion into the United States is the next step in its goal to become a global marketplace for service vendors.
“VendorPM is modernizing the way property managers and vendors work together,” Bril said. “We envision a world that is no longer reliant on paper, email, Excel or word-of-mouth and, in this pursuit, have created one log-in that covers the full ‘vendor’ workflow. We’re on track to become the global, category-defining SaaS-enabled marketplace for service vendors and property managers, and this expansion into the U.S. is the next step in that process.”
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