Scimplify raises $25M at $250M to counter China on critical materials

Scimplify, an India-based specialty-chemicals startup, has raised $25 million in an all-equity strategic round led by Hitachi Ventures at a $250 million post-money valuation, up from $150 million after its Series B in March 2025. TechCrunch reports the round brings total equity funding to about $80 million and adds two of its own customers, Henkel and Teknor Apex, as new strategic investors alongside returning backers Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, Omnivore and 3one4 Capital.

The company sells into manufacturers trying to reduce exposure to Chinese suppliers, including work on tungsten derivatives from scrap and rare-earth materials. Its Scinode platform runs what co-founder Sachin Santhosh describes as specialized AI agents for research, manufacturing and quality control, pointing them at a network of 500+ partner factories, roughly 90% of which sit in India. "Each of these agents is basically solving for what [a customer] would want, working backward from the customer's requirement," Santhosh told TechCrunch. "This helps us move a lot faster and remember customer context even for future references."

Scimplify, founded in 2023, says it has gone from receiving customer requirements to delivering finished material in two months in some cases, versus a 12-to-18 month industry norm. ARR has tripled year-over-year to about $200 million, with U.S. ARR climbing sixfold from $10 million to roughly $60 million and the U.S. now accounting for about 30% of the business. The company is earmarking $7.5 million of the new money for U.S. operations and $2 million for Scinode development, and is targeting $400 million ARR within a year.

Santhosh said Scimplify has been EBITDA-positive for two months and expects profitability after tax in October 2026. It employs about 340 people, including some 70 scientists, and says it serves 1,000+ customers across 40+ countries. This lands amid a crowded fortnight of funding coverage in applied-AI, where the loudest headline this week is Anthropic's IPO investors reportedly pulling its valuation down to $1.5T.