Michigan's DataISource raises $2M seed for AI procurement platform
What's the deal? DataISourceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Macomb County, Michigan startup, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Velocity to build DataProcur, an AI platform for manufacturers' procurement. Co-founded by chief executive officer Cornel Ureche and chief technology officer Bogdan Adrian Horobet, the company has worked with the Velocity accelerator for about 18 months.
What's the endgame? DataProcur is a software-as-a-service platform designed to bring supplier search, quote requests, negotiations, contract management and supply-chain risk monitoring into one system. Its AI analyzes offers in the background, flags possible savings and monitors disruptions.
Why now? Ureche spent nearly 30 years in the automotive supply chain, where purchasing teams relied on spreadsheets, email chains and disconnected software. A single part requiring 10 components can draw quotes from five to eight suppliers each, arriving across different formats for one employee to piece together.
The platform also aims to retain knowledge when experienced buyers leave. "When someone leaves, it leaves a hole that someone else has to come and pick it up," Ureche said. He added that AI augments staff rather than replaces them: "Let AI do the legwork and you be the checker, the judge."
By the numbers: At $2 million, the round sits in the 32.5th percentile for amount among comparable deals. It is modest against procurement-focused peers: Montréal's AxyaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised US$12.5M in September, and London's MagenticDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised $18 million in October, both for AI in manufacturing sourcing and supply-chain operations.
Velocity executive director Paula Macpherson framed the timing around a "silver tsunami" of retiring manufacturers and pressure to onshore production. "That means that manufacturers need to get smarter, faster, leaner," she said.
The signal: DataISource reflects investor interest in applying AI to the manual work surrounding manufacturing rather than the factory floor itself. But with few public details on terms, customers or use of funds, how far the product has progressed remains hard to gauge.
Read more: mlive.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
