Inside the Round: Keychain

CPG just got AI powered.

Author

Feed The AI Team
August 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

In partnership with

Welcome to Feed The AI’s Inside the Round!

Data Just Made Palantir Worth $250B

Palantir just rocketed to $250 billion by helping companies extract value from user data.

A new disruption to smartphones gives users a share in the data profits, already facilitating +$325M in earnings and generating +$75M in revenue.

With 32,481% revenue growth, this company is gearing up for a potential Nasdaq listing (stock ticker: $MODE), and pre-IPO shares are available at only $0.30/share.

It’s a $1 trillion industry, and their disruptive EarnPhone is now being distributed by Walmart and Best Buy.

You saw the funding headline. You maybe even hit “like” on LinkedIn. But do you actually know what’s under the hood?

Welcome to Inside the Round, where we peel back the hype, follow the money trail, and show you the signals hiding in plain sight.

Let’s dive in

The Deal:

Keychain, a NYC-based AI-powered manufacturing platform for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, raised $30M in Series B funding.

  • Lead Investor: Wellington Management

  • Returning Investor: BoxGroup (plus other returning backers)

What Do They Actually Do?

Think of Keychain as the Match.com for CPG manufacturing. Its AI-powered platform connects 20,000+ brands/retailers with 30,000+ manufacturers,

The Founders

  • Jordan Weitz

  • Oisin Hanrahan (ex-Handy, former CEO of Angi)

  • Umang Dua (co-founder Handy)

These aren’t rookies, they’ve scaled before. Handy was a $165M+ services startup before Angi acquired it.

Why Now?

  • The CPG world has been messy for decades. Fragmented supply chains, slow product cycles, and limited transparency.
    Keychain is attacking all of it with AI:

    • Faster matchmaking = faster speed-to-market

    • Data-driven sourcing = better margins

    • More transparency = fewer costly mistakes

And with AI-native CPG platforms now getting attention, Keychain could become the go-to marketplace for consumer goods innovation.

Competitive Context

Keychain isn’t alone in trying to modernize CPG sourcing and supply chains. But its AI-first, marketplace-driven approach stands out from traditional ERP players.

Key competitors include:

  • Arkestro – AI-optimized procurement platform focused on predictive sourcing. More focused on enterprise workflows than marketplace matching.

  • Fairmarkit – Automates tail spend and sourcing for procurement teams. Lacks the specialized CPG vertical focus Keychain offers.

  • RangeMe – A product discovery platform connecting suppliers and retailers. Strong in retail, but more focused on marketplace visibility than full-stack AI matching.

  • Legacy players like SAP, Oracle NetSuite, and Coupa – Strong on compliance and data infrastructure, but slow to innovate and generally not CPG-specific.

Keychain’s edge?

  • Purpose-built for CPG.

  • AI-native, not retrofitted.

  • Experienced team

  • Already operating at scale with strong traction in multiple verticals.

If it keeps growing, Keychain could become the hyper-scaler of physical product manufacturing. An underlying infrastructure layer that reshapes how new products come to life.

Mini SWOT Analysis

Strengths

  • Massive two-sided network: 30,000+ manufacturers and 20,000+ brands/retailers = strong network effects.

  • AI-native infrastructure: Positions Keychain ahead of legacy sourcing systems still running on spreadsheets and phone calls.

  • Experienced founders: The Handy founding team knows how to scale platforms in fragmented, operationally complex markets.

  • Sector flexibility: Expansion from food & beverage into beauty proves horizontal growth potential across CPG.

Weaknesses

  • Dependence on network growth: If either side of the marketplace (brands or manufacturers) stalls, liquidity and platform value drop.

  • Platform stickiness risk: Brands and manufacturers might multi-home or revert to old workflows if Keychain doesn’t offer continued value.

  • AI differentiation not fully visible: Competitive edge will need to be proven beyond AI hype.

Opportunities

  • $2T+ CPG market in the U.S. = endless verticals to expand into (supplements, pharma, pet care, etc.).

  • Retailer partnerships: Becoming the default backend for private label innovation would be a massive unlock.

  • AI sourcing optimization: Data flywheels could drive better margin recommendations, sourcing predictions, and pricing models.

Threats

  • Big incumbents catching up: SAP, Oracle, and CPG incumbents could build or buy their way into this space.

  • Thin margin ecosystem: CPG manufacturing isn’t always high-margin—customer willingness to pay may be limited without serious ROI.

  • Global supply chain instability: Geopolitical risks, freight shocks, and raw material volatility could slow growth or reduce reliability of the network.

Wrap up

Keychain is going after one of the messiest corners of the consumer economy and doing it with AI-native precision. If they win, they become the default infrastructure layer for how new products are made. If they don’t? Still a damn strong contender for acquisition by a CPG giant or ERP heavyweight hungry for innovation.

Other Reads

Summer may be coming to an end but conferences are still going strong, check out upcoming AI conferences:

Top AI Conferences in 2025

In this post, we've rounded up all the Ai conferences happening for 2025, where you can network, learn, and stay ahead of the AI game:

📬 Enjoyed Inside the Round?

💬 Like this breakdown? Hit reply and tell us. We’ll keep doing these deep dives every week.

See you in the next episode.

Feed The AI