Didero gets $30M to put purchases on ‘agent’ autopilot

Tim Spencer found out how difficult it is to buy products when you’re working Markai, an e-commerce startup in Asia, during the plague.

“We had thousands of retailers, and we were distributing in many countries around the world,” Spencer (pictured left) told TechCrunch. His staff was fascinated by the manual processes of salespeople, negotiating prices, complying with regulations, and managing payroll.

“I found myself running this huge organization that wasn’t set up for success,” he said. They sold Markai in 2023, when it was clear that AI output could overcome the time-consuming hurdles for manufacturers and retailers.

Later that year, Spencer launched Didero and Lorenz Pallhuber (pictured center), a veteran of McKinsey’s procurement practice, and Tom Petit, former founder of the States.

Didero, whose mission is to make more of the world’s most complex shopping experience, has just secured a $30 million Series A round led by Chemistry and Headline, with participation from Microsoft venture fund M12.

“Global marketing drives natural language communication,” Spencer said. “It’s emails, WeChat, phone calls, purchase orders, and shipping lists.”

Until the advent of AI extraction, these distributed pieces had to be tracked by people who spent their days chasing salespeople and manually reprogramming machines. Didero says his platform can automate that connection, putting a large part of the shopping process on autopilot.

Didero works as an AI support team that sits on top of the company’s existing ERP system, and acts as a coordinator that reads incoming messages and creates only the most important tasks and tasks.

“The goal is to go from ‘I want the best’ to paying without lifting a finger,” Spencer said.

Unlike Levelpath, Zip, or Oro Labs, which use AI to streamline corporate purchasing, Didero focuses on marketing. Its platform is designed for manufacturers and retailers who need access to the manufacturing tools and inputs needed to build or sell their products.

Didero has few competitors who can handle some of the tasks the company does. For example, Cavela and Stone help source brands and negotiate prices with manufacturers, but according to Spencer, the industry works small and medium-sized companies do not handle the entire procurement process, from the first price to the final payment.

Didero has many clients but he only mentions one, Foota sustainable, plant-based supplier.