Gearflow has gained $3 million in seed funding from Watchfire Ventures, and CNH Industrial will now use Gearflow's platform in its existing dealer ecosystem.
In addition, Greg Owens, former chairman and CEO of IronPlanet, is joining the Gearflow board.
Jack Mosbacher, partner at Watchfire Ventures, calls Gearflow a win-win for contractors, dealers and OEMs. “On the demand side, Gearflow will enable every North American construction business — from large and established to new and emerging — to order parts and get equipment back on the jobsite in a more productive, reliable, and efficient way," he says. "On the supply side, Gearflow will also provide parts suppliers and manufacturers with an entirely new pathway to customers wherever they may be located."
Additional participants in the Watchfire investment included Newark Venture Partners, Liquid2 Ventures, Path Ventures, and Harvard Business School Angels.
"The buying experience for equipment parts is in the stone-age: calling around to find a part, faxing, arranging for pickup or shipping, only to get the wrong part in the end,” says Tom Wisniewski, managing parter of Newark Venture Partners. “Gearflow puts the suppliers and the parts on one platform and provides seamless ecommerce functionality from search to ship. It's cheaper and faster, and it will create more satisfied, loyal customers."
CNH says its Gearflow partnership was prompted in part by the need of mix-fleet customers to quickly get parts. "We see this partnership as an important channel for us to deliver the marketplace experience our customers expect and strengthen the relationships they have with our North American dealers," says Jimmy Mansker, CNH global head of ecommerce.
New board member Owens brings deep industry experience, having helmed online auction marketplace IronPlanet during its acquisition by Ritchie Bros. for $758.7 million in 2017.
"I am excited to contribute to Gearflow as we revolutionize parts procurement and solve the productivity problems stemming from fleet maintenance that have persisted for decades," Owens says.
“Parts and service go hand-in-hand," says Luke Powers, Gearflow founder and CEO, "so our goal is to continue to build a marketplace platform that strengthens existing service relationships, instead of replacing them.”
Gearflow says these investments bring its total funding raised to $4.6 million, after the company raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round in 2019.
