Investment Will Fuel Further Growth of Solution that Streamlines the Design, Development and Production Process
BOULDER, Colo., August 15, 2018 – Backbone PLM, the first cloud-based, collaborative platform that enables brands to streamline the complex product development process, today announced that it has completed an $8 million Series A financing round. Led by Signal Peak Ventures, participants include Grotech Ventures, Spider Capital, Novel TMT Ventures, Beanstalk Ventures, Brainchild Holdings and Peterson Ventures. The funds included $6.7 million in Series A funding, plus a convertible note.
Backbone PLM currently works with more than 100 of the most innovative direct-to-consumer brands, including Allbirds, Kith, Outdoor Voices, Parachute Home, Stitch Fix and Warby Parker. The investment will enable Backbone PLM to accelerate its growth and fuel continued innovation of its product lifecycle management platform.
The company was founded by brothers Matthew Klein and Andrew Klein, fashion and consumer goods industry veterans with more than 30 years of combined product-making experience. Backbone PLM automates the design and production process for consumer goods companies bringing new products to market, helping them reduce lead times throughout the supply chain and get to market faster. Historically, brands had to manually manage the PLM process, which often resulted in errors that led to revenue losses and miscalculated inventory.
“Traditional PLM is slow, rigid and cumbersome. Backbone PLM is reinventing product development with a platform built for modern, creative product teams,” said Matthew Klein, Chief Executive Officer. “The platform eliminates friction and complexities while increasing speed to market. We are thrilled to partner with such a prestigious group of investors, who will be instrumental in helping us bring our solution to even more innovative brands seeking to meet the on-demand needs of consumers,” continued Andrew Klein, Chief Operating Officer.
Backbone PLM drives collaboration and clarity from design through development and production. By enabling companies to see cross-functional activity in real time through a single, customized, cloud-based hub, Backbone PLM increases speed to market, product quality and profits. Through the platform, design and production teams across multiple geographies can collaborate seamlessly in real time, via any device.
Prior to the launch of Backbone PLM, brands had to manually manage inventory, product images, CAD files, size specs, purchase orders, materials, color standards and billing, which often led to employee errors, revenue losses and inventory miscalculations. Backbone PLM enables companies to manage milestone calendars, create tech packs, iterate designs, and track factory communications, samples, approvals, cancellations, actions and purchase orders through to the end product.
“Consumer goods companies have been in desperate need of an automated solution and scalable standard for streamlining design, development and production,” said Brandon Tidwell, Managing Director, Signal Peak Ventures. “We quickly recognized Backbone PLM as a necessary and proven productivity tool that shortens lead times and increases profitability for companies. We are excited to continue working with the company and to support its continued growth.”
About Backbone PLM
Backbone PLM is a next-generation workflow solution that streamlines the complex manufacturing process for consumer goods companies of all sizes. The all-in-one product development platform boosts productivity, reduces errors, improves visibility and helps companies get products to market faster, increasing profitability. By centralizing all design, development and production information, communications and process history in one place in the cloud, Backbone PLM reduces the time design and production teams need to spend meeting, emailing, hunting for data and hounding counterparts for status updates. The company offers automated data importing from clients’ own systems and complete onboarding, training and client support. Backbone was founded by fashion and consumer goods industry veterans Matthew Klein and Andrew Klein. For more information, visit BackbonePLM.com.
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Michael McMullan/Danielle Poggi