Chemical StartUps Series #19: Chembid

Please introduce the value proposition of your company. How will your company disrupt or dramatically change how things are currently done?

As the world's largest metasearch engine for chemicals and plastics, chembid aggregates the information available on the internet on offers and suppliers of chemicals and plastics in order to prepare them in a user-friendly way and make them available free of charge in the chembid search engine. In this way, chembid not only increases the transparency and comparability of industry offers, but also makes the procurement process of business-to-business users more time and cost efficient.

There are various digital marketplaces and online shops worldwide that specialize in chemicals or plastics. Metasearch engines, such as hotel or flight search engines, are already used in other industries. In the chemical and plastics industry, however, the chembid platform is unique and so far unrivaled. chembid.com combines the offers of various marketplaces and shops. Through connections and cooperation with platforms from all over the world, we continuously expand our product range and thus offer our users a comprehensive, fast and simple procurement, and sales opportunity.

Moreover, the chembid platform is a contact point for buyers as well as suppliers of chemicals and plastics, who, in addition to using the search service, could benefit from other services such as market data relevant to the industry.

In addition to price information (chembid Price Trend) for buyers and suppliers, we offer manufacturers and suppliers of chemicals and plastics, for example, services like individual market analyses of selected product offers, product portfolios and suppliers. Valuable insights can be gained for our customers by evaluating buyer search behavior according to categories such as industry and country or by analyzing digital supply and demand. Sales and marketing activities can be optimized on this basis and, for example, help open up new markets and find new customers.

Who are your customers and how large is the addressable market for your products/services?

chembid addresses those who are involved in the commercial purchase, sale or marketing of chemicals and plastics. These are decision makers in purchasing and research and development - from buyers of chemicals in the textile industry to responsible persons from the automotive, agricultural and laboratory sectors - as well as suppliers and manufacturers of chemicals and plastics. The size of the companies in which the buyers and suppliers operate ranges from small family businesses to international corporations. chembid is used by B2B decision makers from all over the world.

The third focus group is marketplaces and online shops, which connect their platforms, websites and shops to chembid and thus making their offerings visible in the chembid search engine.

How scalable do you believe your company is?

Potential customers for our services are almost all chemical companies and chemical buyers worldwide. chembid’s business model is therefore highly scalable.

Globally, there is a large number of supplier shops and marketplaces offering chemicals and plastics. A significant part of these platforms and shops can already be found via the chembid search engine. Nevertheless, the growth potential of the chembid platform remains high. At present, the chembid search engine comprises around 5.3 million product offers from 145,000 suppliers in over 150 countries. Several thousand product offers are added daily. The aim is to make the offers of all marketplaces and online shops worldwide searchable and comparable via the chembid search engine and offer buyers a broad and comprehensive range of chemicals and plastics.

In addition to expanding the product portfolio, a great focus is put on consistently improving the search engine, such as optimizing the search algorithm and filter functions. Marketing and market analytics features are also added on an ongoing basis. The optimization steps are designed to increase the quality of the data and capture, evaluate and visualize it in the best possible way.

Can you summarize the journey of your company up to this point?

Founded in 2016, the chembid platform was launched in October 2017. The BüFA Group, an independent, medium-sized company in the chemical industry from Oldenburg, Germany, provided the push for the founding of chembid. From the original marketplace approach, chembid search engine quickly developed into a meta platform. Over time, the functionality of the chembid platform was continuously optimized and supplemented by new features and services. Since the beginning of 2019, the Stockmeier Group joined as a strategic partner alongside the BüFA Group.

Can you provide some KPIs that helps understand the size and growth of your company?

Since its launch at the end of 2017, the chembid platform has grown strongly in terms of the number of offers and suppliers as well as the number of users. Currently, 47,300 buyers and suppliers from all over the world use the chembid search engine every month (as of December 2019) - and the number is increasing. Most of the users are currently from Asia and Europe. However, the aim is to establish the chembid platform worldwide and achieve a high relevance and users of individual target groups in all regions.

With around 5.3 million offers from 145,000 suppliers, we were also able to expand our portfolio enormously in 2019 (Dec. 2018: approx. 2 million offers and almost 100,000 suppliers). In addition, more than 445,000 search queries with over 1.1 million page views were generated on chembid in 2019. This makes the chembid platform the world's largest B2B search engine for chemicals and plastics in terms of the number of product offers and suppliers.

How can strategic partners from the chemical industry or financial investors contribute to your success?

With the BüFA Group and the Stockmeier Group, we have two strong shareholders who support chembid not only financially but also with their know-how and their business networks. Nevertheless, we are open to further strategic partners from the chemical industry who would like to contribute to and participate in the success and growth of the chembid platform.

Who is the primary point of contact for investors and strategic partners?

• Christian Bürger
• Managing Director
• [email protected]
• +49 441 36 116 325
• https://www.chembid.com
• https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/17980599

Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for this content is with the company profiled.

If you would like to profile your Chemical StartUp in this series, please reach out to [email protected]