Dennis Sankachan is not someone you would expect to build a digital procurement startup.
After graduating from college, Sankachan worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Two years later, he moved to hedge fund PointState Capital, where he helped manage stock investments.
At PointState, which specializes in telecommunications, Sankachan said he faced unexpected challenges. It meant making multiple phone calls and waiting weeks to procure network technology. Inspired by modernizing processes, Sankachan founded Lightyear, a company that helps businesses acquire Internet, SD-WAN, and other critical network infrastructure.
For Lightyear, the goal is to make the process of buying communications infrastructure “like buying socks on Amazon,” Sankachan said. Until now, he said, companies have had difficulty obtaining data such as how much equipment costs and where available providers are located.
“Before Lightyear and today, most companies purchase and manage communications equipment manually, using spreadsheets, and email,” Sankachan told TechCrunch. “Lightyear is the first and only software product that digitizes and automates this entire lifecycle.”
Lightyear offers the ability to choose from networking services and search for providers in a particular area, sorted by cost. Its online marketplace allows businesses to interact with vendors and obtain price quotes. After purchase, Lightyear helps manage the installation of your service and optionally automatically renews your service when your contract expires.
Lightyear's Procurement Dashboard. Various providers and their products are displayed. Image credit: Lightyear
Recently, Lightyear has moved into inventory management and bill payment. This platform not only allows you to monitor and pay bills for communication services, but also to establish a system of record for your organization's network.
Founded in 2019, Lightyear currently has more than 1,000 networking provider partners and processes quotes for tens of thousands of services, Sankachan said. The startup manages millions of dollars in communications spending for more than 300 customers, including Palo Alto Networks, Five Guys, Pandora Jewelry, and Teladoc.
It also helps that purchasing departments are under pressure to digitize the way they work. Purchasing departments across all industries aim to digitize 70% of their processes by 2027, according to a recent PwC digital procurement survey of nearly 1,000 companies.
This week, New York-based Lightyear closed a $31 million Series B funding round led by Altos Ventures, bringing the 35-person startup's total funding to $79.6 million. Sankachan said the new funding will be used for product development and will be “invested more deeply” in improving customer experience and support.
“Although this increase was opportunistic based on outside interest, the company was able to aggressively invest in its core products, new products, and significant improvements to customer support,” he added. “Going forward, we do not intend to rely on external capital for growth or survival, and we need to reach cash flow break-even within our current runway.”
Ridge Ventures, Zigg Capital, Susa Ventures, and Amplo also participated in Lightyear's Series B.