CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Purchasing Platform, LLC (http://www.purchasingplatform.com), a Chicago-based procurement company focused on the real estate industry, announces the closing of an angel round of investment capital. The company raised a total of $565,000 from various angel investors and intends to use the investment to fund startup operations and complete the development of its ecommerce platform.
The Purchasing Platform application is a membership-based website aggregating the buying power of real estate operators to provide a centralized vehicle for the purchasing needs of both property managers and corporate staff. With more than fifteen years of commercial real estate experience, the company’s founder and CEO, Peter Hepner, identified a substantial void in the real estate operations marketplace. “Prior to founding Purchasing Platform, I spent several years leading asset management for a $3 billion real estate investment company where on the whole, we were unable to effectively evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, educate property managers, centralize products, and monitor vendor pricing,” Hepner said. “Purchasing for property managers should not be difficult and the existing purchasing environment in our industry fosters confusion and overspending. Our newly launched application solves this problem.”
The capital raise allows Purchasing Platform to complete the development of its ecommerce platform and build-out its business development, client support, and procurement teams. “We have several companies awaiting the launch,” Hepner continued. “This round of angel investment capital will allow us to bring our product to market and start integrating our first group of clients.” The Purchasing Platform launch will include a wide array of products at extremely attractive prices, allow for customized approval routing within each member company’s organizational structure, and offer detailed reports to analyze operational spend.
The angel round of funding also allowed for the hiring of an ecommerce industry veteran, Brad Kreutz. Joining the company as the chief operating officer, Brad previously ran operations at Cigar.com and T-Shirts.com from 2000 through 2009. “It is a pleasure to join the Purchasing Platform team,” Kreutz stated. “There is a tremendous opportunity to bring sophistication to this industry and I look forward to combining my ecommerce operations experience with Peter’s broad understanding of the real estate industry to deliver a much needed purchasing solution.”