Knowde

Knowde's journey began in 2017, born from a vision to revolutionize an industry deeply rooted in tradition – the chemical sector. Ali Amin-Javaheri, the company's CEO and co-founder, brought with him years of experience from ChemPoint, where he recognized the immense potential for digital transformation in how chemicals, polymers, and ingredients were bought and sold. He teamed up with Wojciech Krupa, a friend from business school with a strong background in building online marketplaces for major companies like LinkedIn, to serve as the technical co-founder. Janakiraman Swamy, a former colleague of Amin-Javaheri's from ChemPoint and a highly technical mind, joined as Chief Knowledge Officer. Together, they embarked on a mission to create the first truly functional digital marketplace for the chemical industry, a sector valued at trillions of dollars yet largely operating through offline, often cumbersome processes. The core idea was to bring the ease and efficiency of modern e-commerce to a complex B2B environment.

The challenge was substantial: the chemical industry was characterized by fragmented information, often locked away in PDFs and requiring lengthy back-and-forth communication between buyers and sellers. Knowde set out to change this by building a comprehensive platform where R&D teams and procurement specialists could search, compare, sample, quote, and purchase products from a vast array of global suppliers, all in one centralized location. This involved not just creating a marketplace, but also developing sophisticated AI-powered tools to digitize, organize, and enrich complex product data. The company's name itself, 'Knowde,' reflects its mission to be the 'node that connects knowledge' within the chemical world. From its headquarters in San Jose, California, Knowde has steadily grown, attracting significant investment and onboarding thousands of chemical suppliers, including major industry players. Their platform now serves a wide range of sectors, from food and nutrition to personal care and industrial applications, aiming to accelerate innovation by making the discovery and procurement of chemical ingredients faster, more transparent, and more efficient for everyone involved.