Kodiact

AI-powered category management and decision intelligence for direct materials for manufacturers.

Cover Block

Open sources

Field	Value
Name	Kodiact
Tagline	AI-powered category management and decision intelligence for direct materials for manufacturers. [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]
Headquarters	Chicago, US [Crunchbase]
Founded	2026 [Crunchbase]
Stage	Pre-Seed [Crunchbase]
Business Model	SaaS
Industry	Logistics / Supply Chain
Technology	AI / Machine Learning
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding Label	Pre-seed [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]
Total Disclosed	~$2,500,000 [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]

What an Investor Needs First

PUBLIC Kodiact is building AI-powered category management and decision intelligence for direct materials, a narrow but consequential software layer for manufacturers that need to make sourcing decisions under commodity volatility, and it merits attention now because it launched publicly in 2026 and disclosed a $2.5 million pre-seed round in November 2026 [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]. The company describes the product as a data, operating, and simulation layer for direct materials that connects materials to price drivers and lets procurement teams test sourcing decisions before those choices reach the profit and loss statement, with ERP overlays that reportedly sit on systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, November 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026].

The founding story, as presented in public materials, is that Steve Tucker and Dan Daehler are returning to a domain they know well after years in procurement, enterprise software, and prior company-building; public interviews and investor materials say Tucker began in commodity procurement at Mars, that Tucker and Daehler have worked together for roughly 25 years, and that they previously built a procurement consultancy later sold to an SAP partner [Expana, September 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026]. Team credibility is one of the clearer strengths in the file: Tucker is identified publicly as Kodiact's CEO, Daehler as COO, and Patrick Mcilvaine as CTO and co-founder, while Tucker's prior sales leadership at Evisort is also documented independently [The Manila Times, November 2026] [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [BusinessWire, March 2022].

The differentiation claim rests less on generic AI positioning than on workflow design for direct-materials sourcing, especially a simulation-led approach that replaces static annual plans with dynamic strategies and a material data model that Supply Change Capital says spans more than 500 raw materials across 23 categories [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026]. Management and company materials cite outcomes including margin expansion, EBITDA uplift, faster category cycles, and more spend per FTE, but those operating claims appear to be company-reported rather than independently verified, so they should be treated as directional at this stage [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

On financing, Kodiact is a pre-seed SaaS company with a disclosed $2.5 million round led by Supply Change Capital, with participation from Green Circle Foodtech Ventures and Velocity Catalyst [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Finsmes, November 2026]. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the key things to watch are whether early pilots convert into durable enterprise deployments, whether the product can move from a compelling simulation layer into a system of record-adjacent workflow inside manufacturing procurement teams, and whether public proof points emerge beyond company-issued performance claims [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026].

Partially corroborated -- Section relies on public company materials, the funding announcement, investor commentary, and partial third-party corroboration; several product and performance claims remain company-reported.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Value
Stage	Pre-Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry / Vertical	Logistics / Supply Chain
Technology Type	AI / Machine Learning
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding	Pre-seed, total disclosed about $2.5 million

Inside the Company

PUBLIC Kodiact is a Chicago-based startup building software for direct-materials procurement, with a stated focus on AI-powered category management and decision intelligence for manufacturers [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [Crunchbase]. The company presents itself as a platform for direct materials, meaning the ingredients, packaging, and components that sit directly in a manufacturer’s cost base, rather than indirect spend categories [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

The public record is still thin, which is typical at this stage. Crunchbase lists Kodiact as founded in 2026 and headquartered in Chicago [Crunchbase], and the company’s own site aligns with a 2026 operating timeline through its product launch and funding announcements [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]. Public materials name Steve Tucker as CEO and co-founder, Dan Daehler as COO and co-founder, and Patrick Mcilvaine as CTO and co-founder [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

The chronology that can be confirmed from company-controlled and database sources is straightforward. Kodiact launched publicly in 2026 with positioning around simulated sourcing decisions for direct materials, then announced a $2.5 million pre-seed financing in November 2026 led by Supply Change Capital [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [Crunchbase]. No legal entity name or state filing details were established from the cited sources used for this section.

Claim stands unchecked -- This section relies primarily on the company website, with partial corroboration from Crunchbase.

Under the Hood

Reported and inferred

Kodiact is selling a fairly specific software thesis: direct-materials procurement decisions should be simulated before they are executed, not reviewed after margin has already moved. Public descriptions consistently frame the product as an AI-powered category management and decision-intelligence platform for manufacturers, with the core system positioned as a data, operating, and simulation layer for direct materials [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]. In company and syndicated launch materials, Kodiact says the platform connects each material to its price drivers and ties sourcing decisions to a single ledger, with the intended result of replacing static annual sourcing plans with strategies that update as market conditions change [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [The Manila Times, September 2026].

The product surface that can be described from public evidence is narrower than the marketing language, but still legible. Kodiact says teams can model market shocks and rehearse sourcing decisions across cost, supplier, market, and margin scenarios, and one published description says the software sits on top of existing ERP systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics rather than asking customers to replace core systems [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, November 2026]. Supply Change Capital also disclosed one concrete architectural claim, that Kodiact's Canonical Material Data Model covers more than 500 raw materials across 23 categories, which matters because the usefulness of a simulation product depends less on generic AI claims than on whether the underlying materials data structure is broad enough to support real sourcing workflows [Supply Change Capital, November 2026].

Kodiact has also made several outcome claims, including 5 to 8 percent EBITDA uplift, 100 to 150 basis points of margin expansion, a strategy cycle compressed from weeks to days, and 2 to 3 times more spend per FTE, but those figures appear on company-controlled materials and are not independently validated in the captured public record [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]. The only roadmap elements that can be discussed here are the publicly announced Marketplace, Trade Desk, Planning, and Innovate modules, which were described in launch coverage rather than observed in a verified public demo, so they are better read as intended product expansion than as proven functionality in market today [AI Frontier Post, September 2026].

Claim stands unchecked -- This section relies materially on company-controlled descriptions, with partial corroboration from GlobeNewswire, FinancialContent, The Manila Times, ProcurementAI, and Supply Change Capital.

Market Research

PUBLIC The market matters now because Kodiact is selling into a procurement function that is being pushed, at the same time, by raw-material volatility, margin pressure, and a broader enterprise shift toward software that can turn fragmented operating data into forward-looking decisions [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [FinancialContent, September 2026].

The public record does not support a clean TAM, SAM, or SOM calculation for Kodiact itself, and there is no named third-party market study in the source set that quantifies direct-materials decision intelligence as a standalone software category. The safer read is to place Kodiact inside a set of adjacent markets: procurement software, supply chain planning, and analytics tools for manufacturers, particularly those exposed to commodity inputs and complex bills of materials [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, September 2026]. That framing matters because the company is not pitching a general back-office workflow tool. Its stated wedge is a simulation layer for direct materials, sitting on top of ERP systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, which suggests it is competing for budget already allocated to sourcing, planning, and operational analytics rather than creating an entirely new line item from scratch [FinancialContent, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

Demand signals in the available evidence are qualitative but coherent. Kodiact repeatedly anchors its case to manufacturers in food, beverage, chemicals, polymers, and consumer packaged goods, categories where input-cost swings can move margins quickly and where procurement teams often work with a mix of ERP records, supplier knowledge, and spreadsheet-based planning [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, September 2026]. The company's product claims, including shorter category strategy cycles and scenario modeling before a sourcing action reaches the profit and loss statement, are company-reported and should be treated that way, but they line up with a real enterprise pain point: direct-materials procurement is hard to automate cleanly because the decision set is tied to volatile markets, formulation choices, supply risk, and commercial margin outcomes rather than simple requisition workflows [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026].

Adjacent markets are just as relevant as the core one, because buyers may compare Kodiact against existing planning and procurement stacks before they treat it as a new category. The closest substitutes, based on the public description, include category management tools, sourcing analytics, supply chain planning systems, and specialized procurement consulting supported by internal spreadsheets and ERP extracts [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]. That is a mixed signal. On one hand, the budget path can be clearer when a product replaces consulting effort or underpowered planning tools. On the other, the burden of proof is higher when the incumbent alternative is not a single software vendor but a patchwork of SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, internal processes, and experienced category managers [FinancialContent, November 2026] [The Manila Times, September 2026].

Macro and regulatory pressure strengthen the use case even without a bespoke market-size figure. Kodiact's own messaging points to elevated commodity volatility, and its launch and financing materials are explicit that the platform is built for volatile categories and for teams that need to model cost, supplier, market, and margin scenarios before acting [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [Yahoo Finance, September 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]. For manufacturers, especially in food and consumer goods, that sits against a backdrop of persistent input swings, retailer pricing pressure, and the operational need to document sourcing decisions more rigorously across finance, procurement, and supply chain functions. The public sources do not establish a distinct regulatory trigger, but they do support the narrower point that volatility and cross-functional decision complexity are the main market accelerants here, not compliance buying alone [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026].

Market lens	Publicly supported read	Source basis
Core market	Direct-materials procurement intelligence and simulation for manufacturers	[Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]
Initial buyer set	Procurement and supply-chain teams in food, beverage, chemicals, polymers, and consumer packaged goods	[Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, September 2026]
Budget adjacency	ERP overlays, sourcing analytics, category management, and planning software	[FinancialContent, November 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]
Demand driver	Raw-material volatility and need for faster scenario-based decisions	[Yahoo Finance, September 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026]

The table points to a market definition that is narrower than generic procurement software but broader than a single point solution. That can help if Kodiact proves it plugs into existing systems without a full stack rip-and-replace, but public evidence is still too thin to quantify market share potential with confidence.

Partially corroborated -- Section relies on public company materials and financing coverage, with partial corroboration from trade and investor sources, but no independent third-party market-sizing report in the cited record.

Competition and Substitutes

MIXED Kodiact is positioning itself less against generic spend software than against the mix of ERP systems, spreadsheets, and category expertise that still drives direct-materials decisions inside manufacturers, with Muir AI the only named startup rival in the current public record [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [FinancialContent, November 2026].

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding	Notable Differentiator	Source
Kodiact	AI-powered category management and decision intelligence for direct materials manufacturers	Pre-seed, $2.5M disclosed in November 2026	Focus on simulating sourcing decisions for direct materials and mapping materials to price drivers through a canonical data model covering 500+ raw materials across 23 categories	[GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026]
Muir AI	AI procurement software competitor named in structured research	Not established in the provided public materials	Named as a competitor, but the available source set here does not substantiate feature-level differentiation	[Structured Facts]

The competitive map is narrow in startup terms but broad in workflow terms. At one end, Kodiact sits on top of ERP systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics rather than trying to replace them, which suggests the practical incumbent is still the system of record plus manual analysis stack [FinancialContent, November 2026]. At the other end are category teams still relying on annual sourcing plans, contract history, supplier intelligence, and internal buyer judgment, a substitute Kodiact is explicitly trying to displace with simulation-led planning for volatile inputs [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

The company’s edge, as publicly described, rests on domain specificity more than distribution. Supply Change Capital said the platform is built on Kodiact’s Canonical Material Data Model, covering more than 500 raw materials across 23 categories, while the company and syndicate materials repeatedly frame the product around food, beverage, and consumer-goods manufacturers where commodity volatility and bill-of-material complexity are acute [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026]. That can be durable if the data model improves with each deployment and becomes harder for general procurement tools to match, but it is still perishable at this stage because the public evidence does not yet show a large installed base, named reference customers, or a channel partner network that would slow competitor entry [GlobeNewswire, November 2026].

The main exposure is that Kodiact does not appear to own the underlying workflow system or the buyer relationship at enterprise scale. Its own materials describe the product as a layer above ERP, which is often the right technical choice for adoption, but it also means incumbents retain control of recordkeeping and adjacent vendors can compete on analytics without forcing a rip-and-replace motion [FinancialContent, November 2026].

Over the next 18 months, the most plausible competitive scenario is a proof-point race inside direct-materials-heavy manufacturing rather than a winner-take-all platform shift. Kodiact is the likely winner if enterprise pilots convert into repeatable deployments and the canonical data model proves materially better than spreadsheet and ERP-native planning for volatile categories, since that would validate the company’s claim that strategy cycles can move from weeks to days, even if the magnitude of business impact remains company-reported today [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]. Kodiact is also the likely loser if buyers decide simulation can remain a feature inside broader procurement or ERP environments, because in that case a startup with limited disclosed capital and no public customer roster has less room to defend the category on distribution alone [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [FinancialContent, November 2026].

Opportunity

PUBLIC The prize here is not a better sourcing dashboard, but a chance to become the operating layer that direct-materials teams use before cost decisions hit gross margin, a role that can matter outsizedly in food, beverage, and consumer-goods manufacturing where raw-material volatility is persistent and the current workflow is still described as fragmented across ERP data, contracts, supplier intelligence, and institutional knowledge [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026].

The headline opportunity is straightforward. If Kodiact can turn simulation into a daily system of record for direct-materials decisions, it could become the default decision layer that sits above incumbent ERP systems for a specific but economically important workflow: how manufacturers price risk, test sourcing moves, and coordinate procurement against margin exposure [FinancialContent, November 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]. That outcome is reachable, not merely aspirational, because the company is attacking a narrow wedge first, direct materials rather than all procurement, and it is doing so with a product architecture that appears designed to fit into existing systems rather than rip them out, including stated interoperability with ERP environments such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics [FinancialContent, November 2026]. The early evidence is still mostly company and investor sourced, but it is directionally supportive: Kodiact has launched publicly, positioned the product around dynamic sourcing rather than annual planning, and raised a $2.5 million pre-seed led by Supply Change Capital with participation from Green Circle Foodtech Ventures and Velocity Catalyst, which suggests informed backers see a real opening in volatile manufacturing categories [Yahoo Finance, September 2026] [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Finsmes, November 2026].

The range of upside paths is narrower than in horizontal enterprise software, but the upside within that lane could still be substantial if one of a few specific adoption motions takes hold.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Vertical system of action for food and beverage	Kodiact becomes the standard simulation and category-management layer for food and beverage manufacturers, starting with direct materials where commodity swings move P&L quickly	Conversion of initial pilots into broader enterprise deployments and proof that dynamic planning shortens decision cycles [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]	The company is already framed around food, beverage, and consumer-goods manufacturers, and investors said proceeds would support conversion of initial pilots into deployments [GlobeNewswire, November 2026] [Supply Change Capital, November 2026]
ERP-adjacent intelligence layer	Kodiact wins by sitting above incumbent procurement stacks as the decision and simulation layer, without asking customers to replace core ERP systems	Successful integrations with SAP and Microsoft Dynamics environments and clear workflow ownership for scenario planning [FinancialContent, November 2026]	The product is described as sitting on top of existing ERP systems, which is usually a lower-friction wedge than core-system replacement in manufacturing accounts [FinancialContent, November 2026]
Multi-module direct-materials platform	Kodiact expands from simulation into adjacent workflows such as marketplace, trade desk, planning, and innovation, increasing wallet share and making the platform harder to displace	Delivery of the roadmap modules already signaled at launch and adoption by the same buyer set [AI Frontier Post, September 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]	The public roadmap already points to multiple modules, and the buyer appears consistent across procurement and supply-chain leadership rather than fragmented across departments [AI Frontier Post, September 2026] [ProcurementAI, retrieved 2026]

The compounding logic rests on data and workflow depth more than classic consumer-style network effects. Kodiact says its foundation is a Canonical Material Data Model covering more than 500 raw materials across 23 categories, and the product claim is that each material is linked to price drivers while each sourcing decision is tied back to a single ledger [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [Kodiact, retrieved 2026]. If that structure proves useful in production, every customer deployment can sharpen the product in three ways: better category templates, more credible simulation workflows, and tighter integration into the cadence of planning and procurement reviews. A platform that is used before decisions are made can become embedded more deeply than reporting software, because it sits closer to budget impact and executive accountability. The company's own claims around reducing category strategy cycles from weeks to days and increasing spend managed per FTE are not independently verified, but they point to the mechanism management is trying to establish: speed plus repeatability in a process that is often manual and experience-bound [Kodiact, retrieved 2026].

The size of the win is best framed conditionally because there is no confirmed public market-size dataset in the source set. In a stronger upside case, Kodiact could mature into a strategic infrastructure asset for procurement and supply-chain software, one that would likely be valued on workflow criticality and embeddedness rather than on broad seat count alone. The nearest public evidence in hand is transactional rather than market-wide: the founders are publicly associated with prior procurement and contract-tech businesses that were sold into larger software ecosystems, including a prior company acquired by DocuSign and sales leadership at Evisort through its acquisition by Workday, which at least shows buyer appetite for software that sits close to enterprise decision workflows [Supply Change Capital, November 2026] [BusinessWire, March 2022] [The Org, retrieved 2026]. If the ERP-adjacent or multi-module scenario plays out, this could become a venture-scale outcome measured in strategic-platform terms rather than point-solution terms, potentially worth several hundred million dollars or more in an acquisition context or as a scaled private software company (scenario, not a forecast). That is still a conditional statement, and it depends on proving repeatable deployments, retained usage, and expansion beyond an initial procurement wedge.

Partially corroborated -- Relies on corroborated funding and role information from GlobeNewswire, Finsmes, Supply Change Capital, BusinessWire, and The Org, but material product-performance and roadmap claims remain largely company or investor sourced.

Sources