Scimplify raises $25M to challenge China’s grip on critical materials with AI

Scimplify just picked up $25 million to push harder at a problem manufacturers have been circling for years: how to make critical materials without depending so heavily on China. The Bengaluru startup’s pitch is simple enough. Use AI to move specialty chemistry from idea to factory faster, and use that speed to open up supply chains that have been concentrated in a few countries for too long.

The round was led by Hitachi Ventures. Henkel and Teknor Apex came in as new investors, while Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, Omnivore and 3one4 Capital also stayed in the mix. A person familiar with the deal put the post-money valuation at $250 million, up from $150 million after Scimplify’s $40 million Series B in March 2025. The company says this latest round takes total equity funding to $80 million.

What Scimplify is selling is not just software, though software is the hook. Orders start with customer requirements, then the company develops the chemical process in its Bengaluru and Hyderabad research facilities before handing production off to partner factories. Its Scinode platform is meant to keep that whole chain stitched together, using specialized AI agents for research, manufacturing and quality control while tracking regulatory and quality demands. Santhosh says that in some cases the company has cut a job that would normally take 12 to 18 months down to two months.

That speed matters because the market is still painfully slow where it counts. Materials discovery has gotten faster thanks to AI and other computational tools, but getting a promising compound into commercial production still means building a process, qualifying sites and clearing strict standards. Scimplify is trying to compress that middle stretch. It now works across more than 500 manufacturing facilities, with about 90% of production in India.

The customer base is already broad: more than 1,000 customers, deliveries to more than 40 countries, and names like TDK, BASF and Hitachi among them. The U.S. has become a big driver, with annualized revenue run rate there rising sixfold to about $60 million from $10 million a year ago. Overall run rate is about $200 million, and Scimplify wants to get to $400 million over the next year. Energy, electronics and defense now make up about 45% to 50% of revenue, which says a lot about where the pressure is coming from.