Keychain, a U.S.-based startup specializing in connecting consumer brands with manufacturing partners, has successfully raised $30 million in its latest funding round. This investment is set to bolster the company’s development team in India and drive its growth across North America.
Strategic Expansion in India
Although headquartered in New York, Keychain operates as a distributed company with its primary engineering and product development hub located in Gurugram, India. The recent funding will enable the company to double its engineering, product design, and analytics teams in Gurugram from 35 to 70 members in the coming months, with plans to reach approximately 100 within a year. Currently, this India-based team constitutes half of Keychain’s 70-person global workforce, with about 20 employees in New York and the remainder in Austin, focusing on partnerships, go-to-market strategies, and sales.
Leveraging India’s Talent Pool
The decision to centralize development operations in Gurugram is strategic. Despite serving primarily Western markets, Keychain has chosen India for its abundant talent, depth, and the speed with which skilled professionals can be accessed. Co-founder and CEO Oisin Hanrahan emphasized the advantages of this approach, stating, It’s the talent, depth, availability, and the speed with which you can access talent of that depth and availability [in India].
Hanrahan co-founded Keychain in 2023 alongside Umang Dua—his co-founder at Handy, a home services software startup later acquired by Angi—and Jordan Weitz. Dua, originally from New Delhi, has been instrumental in establishing Keychain’s core teams in Gurugram. Their prior experiences at Handy and Angi highlighted the challenges of building sustainable engineering teams in the U.S., leading them to recognize India’s potential as an engineering hub.
Serving Prominent Clients
Keychain’s platform has already made significant inroads in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. It assists eight of the top ten retailers, including 7-Eleven and Whole Foods, and seven of the top CPG brands, such as General Mills, in connecting with suitable manufacturers. This success underscores the platform’s effectiveness and the strategic importance of its development operations in India.
Future Prospects
With the new funding, Keychain is poised to enhance its platform further, expand its client base, and solidify its position in the CPG industry. The company’s focus on leveraging India’s talent pool for development while serving Western markets exemplifies a strategic approach to global business operations.
