Indian startup Scimplify, which helps manufacturers reduce reliance on Chinese suppliers by using AI to produce specialty chemicals and critical materials, has raised $25 million in an all-equity strategic round led by Hitachi Ventures, with semiconductors, defense and energy emerging as key growth markets. Customers Henkel and Teknor Apex joined as new investors, while existing backers Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, Omnivore, and 3one4 Capital participated. According to a person familiar with the transaction, the round values the Bengaluru-based company at $250 million after investment, up from $150 million following its $40 million Series B in March 2025. Scimplify said total equity funding is now $80 million but declined to disclose its valuation.

The startup, founded in 2023, addresses a bottleneck in advanced materials: while AI speeds up discovery and research, turning promising chemistry into commercially available products at scale is still slow, requiring production-process development, facility qualification, and strict quality standards within supply chains limited to a few countries. Co-founder Sachin Santhosh said Scimplify has shortened this from 12-18 months to about two months in some cases. After receiving an order, the company develops manufacturing processes at its research facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, then transfers them to partner factories. Scimplify‘s proprietary AI platform, Scinode, coordinates this by identifying production routes and manufacturing facilities and tracking quality and regulatory requirements. It uses specialized AI agents for research, manufacturing, and quality control, each working backward from the customer’s requirement, according to Santhosh. Scimplify‘s in-house team of scientists and engineers oversees production across a network of more than 500 manufacturing facilities; about 90% of its manufacturing currently takes place in India.

The U.S. has become a key growth market: Scimplify‘s annualized revenue run rate there rose sixfold to about $60 million from $10 million a year ago and now represents roughly 30% of business. Customers outside India contribute more than half of revenue, up from less than 5% about 18 months ago. The company serves more than 1,000 customers, has delivered products to more than 40 countries, and has reached an annualized revenue run rate of about $200 million, tripling from a year earlier; it targets $400 million over the next year. Santhosh said Scimplify has been EBITDA-positive for the past two months and expects to be profitable after tax this month. Energy, electronics, and defense now account for about 45-50% of revenue, up from less than 15% a year ago, as AI fuels demand for electronics and energy-infrastructure materials and wars drive defense demand.

Scimplify is working on producing tungsten derivatives from scrap and on rare earth materials, both supply categories heavily concentrated in China. Its customers include TDK, BASF, and Hitachi; Santhosh cited a TDK project as an example of shorter specialty-material development timelines. With the new funding, Scimplify plans to expand its production network to the U.S. and Japan over the next year, allocating about $7.5 million to U.S. expansion and $2 million to further developing Scinode. It employs about 340 people, including roughly 70 scientists, with local teams in the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, and the UAE.