Peeko has raised $3.2 million in their Seed Round from Stellaris Venture Partners, Maninder G., Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Abhishek Goyal, Nitin Gupta, and Arjun Vaidya, marking an important early milestone for the company. The round underscores strong investor belief in Peeko’s mission: solving the persistent inefficiencies in how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) manage procurement and supply chain operations.

At its core, Peeko is reimagining procurement not as a cost center but as a growth enabler. With this fresh capital, the company aims to scale its digital procurement platform, streamline vendor relationships, and offer SMEs the tools they need to compete in markets historically dominated by larger enterprises with deeper resources.

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The Problem: Procurement is Broken for SMEs

Procurement is one of the most overlooked but critical functions in business operations. For large corporations, procurement teams are equipped with digital tools, structured vendor networks, and leverage over suppliers. But for SMEs, the picture looks very different:

• Fragmented vendor base: SMEs often work with dozens of small vendors without centralized tracking.
  
• Manual processes: Paper-based or Excel-based systems lead to inefficiencies and errors.
  
• Lack of pricing power: Smaller order volumes mean SMEs pay higher costs than enterprise buyers.
  
• Cash flow pressures: Poor procurement visibility can create bottlenecks in inventory and finance.
  

These challenges translate into lower margins, slower growth, and missed opportunities for millions of SMEs. It’s a structural problem  - one that’s been amplified by global supply chain volatility and rising input costs.

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Peeko’s Solution: Procurement Made Simple

Peeko is stepping into this gap with a platform-first approach to procurement. Instead of SMEs juggling multiple vendor conversations and fragmented systems, Peeko provides a centralized digital layer that simplifies and automates the entire process.

Key elements of Peeko’s platform include:

• Vendor consolidation: Bringing fragmented suppliers into a single ecosystem.
  
• Digital workflows: Replacing manual processes with structured, automated tools.
  
• Data-driven insights: Helping SMEs forecast demand, negotiate better pricing, and optimize working capital.
  
• Scalable infrastructure: Allowing businesses to onboard quickly without enterprise-level IT overhead.
  

By solving procurement’s fragmentation, Peeko unlocks not just cost savings, but operational agility  - a crucial advantage in competitive markets.

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Why Investors Backed Peeko

The investor lineup  - Stellaris Venture Partners, Maninder G., Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Abhishek Goyal, Nitin Gupta, and Arjun Vaidya  - highlights broad confidence in Peeko’s thesis. The backing includes both institutional capital and seasoned founders/operators, which is often a signal that the company’s value proposition resonates at both strategic and tactical levels.

For investors, procurement is a huge, under-digitized market. While fintech, logistics, and HR tech have seen waves of digital adoption, procurement for SMEs has lagged behind. This gap creates a wide-open category where a focused player like Peeko can build defensibility.

Additionally, Peeko’s founder-market fit is compelling. Vivek Khetan, Chetan Sharma, and Abhijit Gairola bring deep operational knowledge, allowing them to build not just tech but workflows that actually match the realities of SME businesses.

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Founder Insight: Position Yourself as a Platform, Not Just a Product

One key takeaway from Peeko’s raise is how the company frames itself. Instead of pitching as a “tool” or a “procurement app,” Peeko has positioned its solution as an end-to-end platform that unlocks growth for SMEs.

This framing matters. Tools solve immediate problems, but platforms reshape business operations. Investors back platforms because they scale horizontally and create ecosystems, not just incremental fixes.

For early-stage founders in any industry, this is a critical lesson: own the narrative of building infrastructure, not just software. Infrastructure attracts capital because it promises staying power and defensibility.

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Roadmap: What’s Next for Peeko

With $3.2 million in fresh capital, Peeko’s next moves are focused on expansion and depth:

1. Scaling vendor partnerships: Growing the supplier base to offer SMEs more choice and better pricing.
   
2. Expanding geographically: Entering new markets where SME procurement is highly fragmented.
   
3. Product development: Adding advanced analytics, payments integration, and financing support.
   
4. Customer acquisition: Investing in go-to-market strategies to onboard SMEs at scale.
   

The seed stage is about building proof points. For Peeko, the ability to demonstrate significant cost and efficiency gains for SMEs will be the metric that validates its platform approach.

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Market Outlook: Procurement Tech at an Inflection Point

The timing for Peeko’s raise is strategic. Global supply chain pressures and digitization trends are converging to create a once-in-a-decade opportunity in procurement.

Key stats highlight the scope of the opportunity:

• The global procurement software market was valued at $6.15 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $13.6 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 11.7% (Fortune Business Insights).
  
• In India alone, SMEs contribute nearly 30% of GDP and represent a procurement market worth hundreds of billions annually.
  
• Digital adoption in SMEs has accelerated since COVID-19, with procurement emerging as the next major category after payments, HR, and logistics.
  

This landscape makes procurement technology one of the last untapped frontiers of digitization for SMEs  - and Peeko is positioning itself at the center of that shift.

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Final Thoughts

Peeko’s $3.2 million seed round demonstrates how investors are now looking beyond the obvious categories (fintech, logistics) toward system-level inefficiencies that affect millions of businesses. By reframing procurement as a growth lever rather than an administrative function, Peeko is changing the way SMEs view and manage their operations.

For founders, the insight is clear: big opportunities exist where industries remain analog, fragmented, and underserved. If you can transform a cost center into a competitive advantage, you’re not just solving a problem  - you’re unlocking an ecosystem.