Code and Compounds: Digitising the Future of the Chemicals Industry

ChemCloud is a Paloma portfolio company helping manufacturers streamline their procurement of raw materials. They kicked off back in 2021 and since then they've completed a successful capital raise, grown to a team of 5 and have millions of dollars worth of transactions taking place through their platform every quarter.

What does ChemCloud do?

ChemCloud is a digital platform that makes it easy for companies to discover, buy and sell chemical raw materials. The chemical industry supplies inputs into nearly every single manufactured product around the globe and is a $5.5T industry worldwide. But the way chemicals are bought and sold has remained unchanged for decades—stuck in a world of paper, phone and fax.

How did you begin to tackle such a big industry?

Initially the problem we started with was relatively small but urgent: suppliers having excess stock. We started working with Paloma to build the first version—instead of spending 6-12 months hiring, we spun up a dev team within 2-3 weeks.

What does the business look like now?

We're now an in-house team of 5 with an incredible CTO, Head of Business Development, and Lead Software Engineer. We actually hired our Lead Software Engineer from Paloma—he had been working on the platform for 18 months.

Advice for first time founders?

Just build the first version—whether it's an online form, a low-code app or something in Airtable—show it to customers and iterate. Solve a problem you've experienced so you have unique insight and empathy.