Supply chain shortages and high gasoline prices have forced consumer packaged goods companies to manage trade more effectively over the past year to compete with other brands. Add to that a staff shortage and some brands are finding that third parties they relied on are “dropping the ball when it comes to executing promotions,” Alexander Whatley, CEO of livelytold toptecheasy.com.
“We see brands negotiating a 20% discount on a promotion, but it may not be implemented, but they are still charged,” Whatley added.
Since CPG companies spend more than 20% of their sales on trade promotion managementthis is where Vividly comes in. Formerly known as Cresicor, the company provides trade promotion management tools for the $20 million global consumer packaged goods industrywhich is predicted to reach $25 million by 2028. The tools manage trading spend from campaign creation to promotion planning, forecasting and deduction management.
Whatley estimates that customers have seen a 90% time saving required to complete business processes and a more than 20% improvement in planning accuracy.
We profiled the company last year, when it was Cresicor, and when it raised $5.6 million in seed money. At the time, the turnover had grown by 2.5x and the number of employees by 4x to 20.
Cresicor was a company name Whatley came up with in 2017 when he founded the company with his brother Daniel, Stuart Kennedy and Nikki McNeil. At the time, he admitted it was “cool,” but as they got more into the trade promotion business, they realized it didn’t fit.
Vividly’s trade planning feature. Image Credits: lively
“It also sounded a bit like a drug name, so we always knew we wanted a new name,” Whatley said. “We help brands process messy retailer data, feeds and spreadsheets into a clear format and data-driven downstream analytics. Essentially, we help brands that often use opaque processes and highlight those issues ‘lively’.”
Today, Vividly has since increased sales by more than 4x and grown its customer base by 3x, including CPG brands such as Liquid Death, Bulletproof and Quinn’s. In addition, the employees grew to 60.
In addition, it announced $18 million in Series A dollars led together by 645 Ventures and Vertex Ventures US, with participation from existing investors Costanoa Partners and Torch Capital, as well as Green Spoon Sales. The new investment, which closed in May, has given the company $23 million in total funding since its inception.
As part of the investment, 645 Ventures Managing Partner Nnamdi Okike will join Vividly’s board of directors.
Meanwhile, the company will use the new funding to accelerate product development to cater to larger CPG customers and scale its go-to-market team.
Next, Vividly looks at a Series B round as it works to build out optimizations and modules within its platform.
