CloudForge Secures $3.95M in Funding for AI-Powered Sales and Procurement Platform
CloudForge did not come out swinging. It came out cutting steel. Founded in August 2022 and headquartered at 169 Madison Avenue in New York, New York 10016, this is what happens when software people stop romanticizing disruption and start respecting the floor. The North American metals service center industry moves between $250 and $300 billion a year, quietly, imperfectly, and with systems that still remember dial-up. CloudForge decided that was enough nostalgia.
CloudForge emerged from stealth with a $3.95 million seed round led by Zero Infinity Partners, joined by Resolute Ventures and Bienville Capital. Zero Infinity Partners Founder and Managing Partner John Kwaak knows infrastructure, not vibes, and that distinction matters here. This was not a popularity check. It was a conviction play on software built for weight, heat, and consequence.
Benjamin Marans, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, did not stumble into metals. He studied vertical SaaS from the inside at Fractal Software, watched platforms scale at HealthVerity and Medidata Solutions, then picked an industry that still runs on relationships, spreadsheets, and tribal memory. Christopher Holt, Co-Founder and former Chief Technology Officer, grew up in a steel family and previously scaled engineering teams at Up&Up before departing CloudForge in October 2024. That lineage shows up in the product, not the pitch.
CloudForge is not a marketplace. That is intentional. It is a searchable operating system for metals, powered by a proprietary database of more than 165,000 verified metal companies across North America. Sales, CRM, procurement, sourcing, quoting, inventory, analytics, execution, all forged into one platform without asking teams to hire more people to babysit software. The word forge matters here. This platform shapes flow, it does not just display it.
Traction arrived early and loud. Tri-State Steel signed a new customer in their first week using the platform. Metals & Alloys said the quiet part out loud, admitting they would rather competitors not touch it. As of this raise, CloudForge has $500,000 in contracted revenue and headcount growth north of 170 percent year-over-year. That is not noise. That is pull.
Product depth is being driven by Prahasith Veluvolu, Founding Head of Product, whose path runs from founding Mimir to its acquisition by HackerRank and years of shipping product at scale. Forbes 30 Under 30, Peter Thiel Fellow, Y Combinator alum, and still allergic to empty features. The roadmap is about execution speed, sourcing clarity, and removing friction that the industry has accepted for decades.