Exclusive: With Customers Like Okta And Coinbase, Coverbase Raises $16M To Grow AI-Powered Procurement Platform

, an AI-powered procurement platform, has raised $16 million in a Series A round led by , the startup tells 附近上门 News exclusively.

Founded in 2024, San Francisco-based Coverbase aims to reinvent how enterprises vet and manage vendors in a 鈥渟ecurity-first鈥� manner. Specifically, it uses artificial intelligence to automate and secure how large, regulated companies onboard new vendors and suppliers, such as software providers, consultants, contractors and service firms.

Coverbase counts , , and the among its customer base.

Coverbase Co-founders CEO Clarence Chio and CTO Kao Zi Chong — Coverbase co-founders Clarence Chio and Kao Zi Chong. Courtesy photo.

Co-founders CEO and CTO have impressive backgrounds. Chio also co-founded , a startup that helps businesses monitor fraudulent activities with its no-code software that has raised from the likes of . Chong is a former engineering manager at fintech giant .

The pair started Coverbase to automate the procurement process 鈥渂y weaving risk, security, and compliance decision-making directly into every stage of intake, due diligence, contracting, and ongoing monitoring.鈥�

鈥淲hat makes us different is that our AI agents don鈥檛 just manage workflows, they actually perform the work,鈥� Chio, who currently teaches AI and cybersecurity at , told 附近上门 News.

Most competitors, he claims, build tools that help humans move through manual approval steps. (Competitors include the likes of , , and .) By being 鈥淎I-agents-first鈥� instead of 鈥渨orkflow-first,鈥� Coverbase allows customers to onboard vendors faster, with less friction and stronger security outcomes, according to Chio.

According to 1 Data Breach Investigations , breaches involving third parties reached 30% this year, up 2x compared to 2024, 鈥渄riven in part by vulnerability exploitation and business interruptions.鈥�

Investors appear to be pouring more money into AI-powered procurement startups lately. Examples include:

In late June, , a provider of AI-enabled procurement tools, it raised over $55 million in a Series B round led by . The company鈥檚 platform uses AI agents to autonomously handle procurement tasks for businesses.
In July, , a startup using artificial intelligence to improve efficiency in the construction industry supply chain, raised $20 million in a Series A funding round.
In October 2024, procurement startup saw its valuation jump 47% after raising a $190 million Series D led by .

Fast growth

Existing and new investors including , , , and also participated in Coverbase鈥檚 Series A round. To date, the company has raised about . While Chio declined to reveal its valuation, he said the Series A represents 鈥渁 roughly 4x increase鈥� compared to its previously undisclosed $3.5 million seed round led by Fika.

Chio also declined to reveal hard revenue figures, noting that Coverbase鈥檚 customer base has grown 10x since the start of 2025. Overall, the startup has about 35 customers and operates on a usage-based SaaS pricing model that scales with the number of suppliers and risk assessments performed on its platform.

Its customers range in size, with some having as few as 50 suppliers, and others being larger companies with over 50,000 suppliers. Besides those mentioned above, customers include , , , , , , , and .

Coverbase is currently active in industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and technology because they 鈥渄emand high levels of compliance and security,鈥� Chio noted.

But the company is also expanding into telecommunications and critical infrastructure, and sees future opportunities in other highly regulated sectors such as energy and utilities, defense contracting, government, aerospace and aviation, medical devices and biotech, and payments and logistics.

The company plans to use its new capital to expand into contract management and continuous security monitoring. It鈥檚 also planning to quadruple its sales force to meet 鈥渁ccelerating enterprise demand.鈥� Presently, Coverbase has 12 employees.

鈥楢 real and persistent pain point鈥�

, president and general partner at Canapi, said his firm was drawn to Coverbase because it believes the company is 鈥渟olving a real and persistent pain point in enterprise procurement鈥攑articularly in highly regulated, security-conscious sectors.鈥�

鈥淰endor onboarding is typically slow, fragmented, and risk-prone,鈥� he wrote via email. 鈥淐overbase is flipping that dynamic by using AI to make procurement faster, more secure, and strategically valuable.鈥�

Forehand also believes that what sets Coverbase apart is its AI-native approach.

鈥淭his gives enterprises a faster, smarter, and more secure way to adopt innovation without adding operational burden,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about efficiency 鈥� it鈥檚 about turning procurement into a competitive advantage, which is a fundamentally different mindset from traditional solutions.鈥�

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