Chemberry seeks co-investors and expansion across more sectors in 2019

Chemberry plans to expand its database to include 50,000 products by February 2019 as the platform prepares its rollout to more industry sectors.

New Year goals

The company is currently assessing other segments, such as home care, where the search for chemical ingredient has notable gaps, said Timo von Bargen, managing director of Chemberry.

There are also plans to add more features to the platform, such as more advanced analytics dashboards for suppliers, improved data extraction efficiency through automation, and more intelligence in the Chemberry search engine.

“The latter point in particular will support us in making the search process even more convenient for the buyer,”​ said von Bargen.

Two thumbs up

Chemberry currently indexes more than 5,000 Personal Care formulation products including active ingredients, colourants, emulsifiers and UV filters.

Chemberry has been receiving positive feedback since its launch last October, said von Bargen.

“Buyers have told us that it is easy to use and saves them time since they can find a lot of product options all from one site.”​

He added that suppliers are appreciative of the simple business model – an annual flat fee of $5,000 – as well as how the platform takes information listed on their public sites, eliminating the need to upload product information.

Easier way to buy and sell

The idea behind Chemberry was to make the search for chemicals easier and less exasperating.

“Searching for chemicals online is tedious as no solution covers the entire market, and existing solutions usually do not use modern user interface concepts nor much artificial intelligence,” ​said Von Bargen.

The platform has a clean, minimalist design with industry-specific filters give the option to search by company, function, product claim, application, and chemical composition as well as certification.

Users can also explore latest market information and trends to inform their buying decisions and accelerate future innovation.

The platform does not just offer benefits to buyers. von Bargen said the platform helps suppliers easily raise awareness of their products while improving their own understanding of market trends.

Additionally, the platform can help suppliers find new leads by tracking buyers’ behaviour on the platform.

Industry innovation​

Chemberry began development in 2017 as part of Clariant’s overarching strategy to develop new digital business models and engage in digital ecosystems.

The speciality chemicals company realised the industry was lacking a convenient way to find the right chemicals after conducted over 50 interviews with Clariant customers.

“Chemberry was born out of our passion to go beyond existing limited search functions to make it really fast, flexible and simple for buyers of chemical ingredients to find the right ones for their application,” ​von Bargen added.

Chemberry launched the beta version in April 2017. The positive responses pushed them to officially launch a little over a year later for the personal care sector first.

“[Personal care] is a relatively fragmented segment with a lot of innovation and frequent new product launches to address fast-changing end-consumer demands. This means that buyers are often on the search for new products while suppliers are often looking for a way to easily market new products,” ​said von Bargen.

Chemberry operates out of its own organisational unit even though it is part of an industry initiative started by Clariant. This is to ensure confidentiality, compliance, and neutrality of the platform.