Drivetrain raises $15 million to support its business planning platform

"Building a business is like finishing a puzzle and if you miss a piece, you'll run out," says Alok Goel, co-founder and CEO of Drivetrain. Goel and his team say Drivetrain, which is announcing a $15 million funding round today, will help companies avoid falling into this trap, and thereby complete the picture and realize their potential.

Drivetrain is a cloud-based software-as-a-service application designed to make it easier for companies to plan their execution strategies and monitor their performance against their goals. It pulls data from existing business tools - it can integrate 200 different tools ranging from Excel spreadsheets to apps like Salesforce - to provide a single view of where the business is now, where it's headed and where it's headed. of what is needed along the way.

“Think of us like Google Maps for business,” adds Goel. "When you're in an unfamiliar place, Google Maps shows you how to get there, monitors your journey, and helps you get back on track if you're wrong; Drivetrain does the same for your business."

The company considers its target customer to include any company that has found its footing in the market and proven that it has a product or service that customers want to buy; the knack for these companies then is to grow quickly, maximize customer reach, and identify new opportunities while managing cash flow and staying on track to achieve key goals.

Drivetrain's role in this area, according to Goel, is to provide a simple set of data on which the business can base its decisions. It gives management teams a clear picture of their current situation, as well as the ability to model the impacts of a number of decisions aimed at moving the company towards its goals. Once decisions are made, Drivetrain continuously monitors impacts to identify any deviations between actual results and what was expected. Where there is a gap, it can help managers catch up.

Part of the appeal, says Drivetrain CTO and co-founder Tarkeshwar Thakur, is the customization it offers. “Every business is a little different,” he says. "We designed Drivetrain to be flexible from the ground up. Behind the scenes, the system creates a program for the business that captures every nuance."

The bottom line for Goel and Thakur is that companies should refrain from making gut decisions based on gut feelings; on the contrary, every choice the company makes must be informed by the data it has.

Many companies agree, but in practice it is difficult to use their data, stored in multiple company systems, to drive more scientific decision-making processes. “The key is that no company data should remain untouched,” adds Goel.

Independent research points in the same direction. Gartner, for example, released statistics warning that only 13% of organizations are able to identify performance issues before they begin to impact financial metrics. This reflects an inability to leverage data at an early stage.

Drivetrain's proposal is based on Goel's experience as a partner at Elevation Capital, where he spent time as a venture capitalist tracking over 1,000 potential investments. Over time, he has become increasingly interested in the common denominators of companies executing their plans predictably and successfully. The most remarkable commonality was their ability to plan well and base their decisions on data.

This inspired the launch of Drivetrain in April 2021, when Goel, Thakur and a small team began developing a prototype of the current platform. Since then, the company has 35 employees and began shipping its software three months ago.

Now that this commercialization process looks set to pick up speed, Elevation Capital, Jungle Ventures, and Venture Highway, along with a group of 25 angel investors, advisors, and founders, are pumping $15 million into the company .

"I see Drivetrain becoming part of the core financial technology stack for growth-stage companies," says Arpit Beri, principal at Jungle Ventures. "You need a layer of metrics where you can simulate and implement your growth strategies, answer strategic questions like what you can do to increase revenue or reduce costs, and guide you to results. more predictable."

The funds raised are intended for two types of deployment,...