Green Bay chemical supply tech startup ChemDirect focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship

By: John McCracken

Finding the right office supplies online has revolutionized in recent years. With services like Amazon’s 2-day shipping, bulk post-its and pens are available at a company’s fingertips with ease.??

If your company requires something a little more sensitive and difficult to find, say industrial-grade chemicals, the options for easy online purchases are slim to one. The process is muddy and full of time-consuming coordination.?

“(With other processes) you get into the back and forth of the emails and the phone calls and trying to find a price that works and then shipping that works,” said Autumn Siudzinski, ChemDirect Director of Strategy and Operations.?

Founded in 2019, ChemDirect, a Green Bay-based B2B online marketplace for specialty chemicals, brought buying chemicals into the 21st century. The company’s goals of disrupting its sector and providing something new to the industry were recognized by the Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce in June when they received a 2022 Entrepreneurship Award.?

Siudzinski said the award recognized ChemDirect’s tenacity to go out and solve a problem no one else was working on and produce the best solution on the market.?

The company’s main product is an online marketplace reminiscent of large sellers such as Etsy or Walmart Online. ChemDirect’s marketplace is free for chemical manufacturers to use. Siudzinski said the company’s genesis came from the realization that chemical distributors typically have a mark-up upwards of 80% after purchasing from manufacturers.??

ChemDirect moved to Green Bay from Venice, California in 2020 to become a member of TitletownTech after receiving initial investment funding from the Packers- and Microsoft-backed tech venture. They recently completed a round of Series A funding, with transportation and logistics company Schneider National acting as a lead investor. Siudzinski said the company has doubled its team size to 12 full-time employees since the completion of this recent funding round, farthing their commitment to the Wisconsin technology ventures.??

“You don't have to just be on the East Coast or West Coast,” Siudzinski said. “There's a lot of cool technology happening within the Midwest. I think I've also really enjoyed working in an environment where you get to interact with the other (TitleTownTech) portfolio companies.”?

Since setting up roots in Green Bay, ChemDirect has continued to fine-tune its technologies to offer shopping comparison tools for chemical consumers. The company has also launched a financing product and payment platform called ChemPay alongside ChemSource, a sourcing tool for chemical buyers having trouble finding specific products and producers with excess products can meet, with the tech company facilitating negotiations along the way.??

The launch of ChemSource comes at a time when supply chain problems have customers of all industries having trouble finding certain products. A January American Chemistry Council study found that 98% of surveyed chemical companies modified their operations because of supply chain and transportation issues.?

Siudzinski said ChemDirect has seen recent supply chain issues in the last year as an opportunity for them to grow and gain more users, as opposed to being mired by ongoing industry woes. ?

“That's the beauty of being a marketplace,” Siudzinski said, “because if one supplier is having problems getting some of their raw materials so they can't produce the product, then we can find a different supplier.”?

ChemDirect works with a variety of customers, from nail salons in need of acetone to massive food companies like Tyson, who routinely need large tanker trucks of chemicals for sanitization and production operations. Siudzinski said the company’s three main clients could be categorized as industrial use, companies in need of mid-sized quantities, and smaller startup operators. They currently source materials from 85 chemical manufacturers, all of which have been vetted for quality and safety concerns, just as they do with customers, given the sensitive nature of the products they move.??

Transparency is another aspect ChemDirect changes in the chemical supply industry. Siudzinski said the industry is typically not transparent for consumers and suppliers alike. A consumer won’t always know where their chemicals are coming from as distributors will White Label their products. Suppliers also don’t get data on who is purchasing their products. ChemDirect aims to make supplier and consumer data available to all parties, increasing clarity for all involved.??

“By just aggregating the supply and the demand in one place, we're able to really help both sides of the market,” Siudzinski said.??