Miami fintech Calculus raises seed round to help companies optimize working capital
Amid recession and geopolitical changes, optimizing supply chains and working capital has become a high priority for C-suites and boardrooms. Miami-based Calculus leverages advanced analytics and artificial intelligence-based systems to help companies select suppliers, negotiate payment terms, assess risk of supply chain disruptions, optimize cash flow and improve sustainability.
Calculus announced on Tuesday that fintech VC firm Vestigo Ventures led its seed round, with participation from Nevcaut Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, XBTO Humla Ventures and KD Venture Partners. Calculus did not disclose the size of the round, but Crunchbase lists it as $4.2 million.
Oliver Belin, Calculus’ founder and CEO, is a Miami-based supply chain expert who for the past two decades has been focused on the financial side of the supply chain: aspects such as credit risk, payments and financing. The problem he saw was that companies didn’t have the data-driven insights needed to optimize decision-making processes in the financial supply chain, and in 2021 Belin and his team launched Calculus.
Today, Calculus’ platform identifies an average of up to 20% in free cash flow for each vendor analysis, Belin said.
“We provide insights that enable treasury and procurement teams to benchmark against their peers and identify opportunities right down to the supplier level. We then deliver automated scripts tailored to each supplier that include all the necessary arguments teams need to negotiate better terms with confidence and gain a competitive edge,” says Belin, a native of Switzerland who has lived in Miami since 2017.
Calculus also sees an opportunity in ESG, which is becoming an increasingly important factor in procurement negotiations. In KPMG’s 2022 Global Supply Chain Trends Survey, 53% of organizations plan to increase their focus on sustainable sourcing. Through a partnership with London-based InvestVerte announced last year, Calculus provides access to ESG metrics that help companies use payment terms to incentivize suppliers to comply with ESG ratings
“Especially now, in an environment of high interest rates and borrowing costs, Calculus’ AI-powered treasury solution is the technology finance, procurement and supply chain leaders need to generate free cash flow,” said Mike Nugent, CEO of Vestigo Ventures. “[Calculum] helps companies take control of their working capital, not just as a project, but as an embedded, enterprise-wide process. It is the competitive advantage companies need today to ensure future success.”
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