Tuesday, 20 October 2026
Business

Scimplify Raises $25 Million Led by Hitachi Ventures as the Bengaluru Chemicals Start-up Targets Semiconductor Materials and a US Expansion

Scimplify raised $25 million led by Hitachi Ventures, with customers Henkel and Teknor Apex joining, to build semiconductor and battery chemicals and rare-earth purification capacity.

IndiaX24 Newsroom••3 min read

Scimplify, a Bengaluru-based specialty chemicals start-up, has raised $25 million in a funding round led by Hitachi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Japan’s Hitachi Group, according to Inc42, Yahoo Finance and other outlets. Other participants include Accel, Bertelsmann India Investments, 3one4 Capital, Omnivore, Teknor Apex, Henkel and an undisclosed Japanese chemical company, according to Inc42.

The company said that the money will be used to expand research, processing and manufacturing capacity for the purification of rare earths and critical metals, to scale its semiconductor chemicals and battery chemicals businesses and to strengthen its SciNode AI platform, according to Inc42. A Yahoo Finance report adds US research and process-development teams, qualified American manufacturing partners and secure supply of feedstock for critical metals and rare earths.

The reports differ on some figures. Inc42 says that the company’s total funding to date is $65 million, being this round plus a $40 million Series B in March 2025. A Yahoo Finance report says that Scimplify now has $80 million of total equity funding, that it is valued at $250 million, that it has an annualised revenue run rate of $200 million and that it is on track for post-tax profitability this month. Inc42 does not give the valuation or the revenue. IndiaX24 reports the Yahoo figures as that outlet’s and has not been able to confirm them from the company.

The run-rate figure is large relative to the funding. A revenue run rate of $200 million against $80 million of equity raised would mean that annualised revenue is 2.5 times the money raised, a ratio that IndiaX24 has calculated from the figures in the Yahoo report. A run rate is an annualised figure based on recent sales and is not audited revenue.

Scimplify does not own all of its production. Its in-house team of scientists and engineers manages production across a network of more than 500 manufacturing partners, according to Inc42 and Yahoo Finance, and it has research and development facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. About 40 per cent of its revenue now comes from high-value segments such as AI, semiconductors and defence, according to the Yahoo report.

The growth in customers is striking. Accel partner Rachit Parekh said that in the 18 months since Accel’s first investment, Scimplify has grown from serving more than 600 customers in 16 countries to a global platform with more than 1,000 customers in more than 40 countries, according to Inc42. That is an increase of about 67 per cent in customers and 150 per cent in countries, calculations by IndiaX24 using the lower bounds.

Two of the investors are customers. Henkel and Teknor Apex joined as new investors, according to Yahoo Finance, which describes the round as an all-equity strategic round. The founders are Sachin Santhosh, Salil Srivastava, Dheeraj Dhingra and Hersh Manek, according to Inc42.

The focus on critical materials follows a wider concern over supply from China. Yahoo Finance’s headline says that Scimplify raised the money to challenge China’s grip on critical materials with AI, and NewsBytes says it aims to cut reliance on Chinese suppliers. Those are the outlets’ descriptions, and the company’s own statements were not available in the reports reviewed.

IndiaX24 will report on the company’s US expansion and any plans for a public listing if they are announced.

Image: A specialty chemicals factory in West Bengal (file photo; a stand-in image, not a Scimplify facility). Photo by This photograph is created by Sbb1413. All photographs created by him are released under the {{CC-BY 4.0}} license unless otherwise noted. Derived works are released under the same license as original., licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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IndiaX24 Newsroom

Reporting, explainers and profiles from the IndiaX24 editorial desk.

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