Anika Begay
Most consumer brands have “completely disassociated” themselves from the manufacturers who actually create their products, says Keychain CEO Oisin Hanrahan.
“They own nothing except a brand and a set of marketing functions,” Hanrahan said.
That’s what Hanrahan is trying to change with Keychain. Brands can use the website to search for different products and see who actually makes them, then contact those manufacturers and potentially collaborate on future products.
To demonstrate the platform, Hanrahan searched for the granola and yogurt I eat for breakfast every morning. Once he found the manufacturers, he said a major retailer could then partner with them to create a private label version of that granola or yogurt, or a new brand might want to create something healthier or more environmentally friendly.
Hanrahan and Umang Dua previously founded home services marketplace Handy, which was acquired by ANGI Homeservices, where Hanrahan served as CEO until 2023. After ANGI, the two co-founded Keychain with Jordan Weitz.
In November 2023, the New York-based startup announced that it had raised an $18 million seed funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which it actually launched in February. Since then, Keychain says that major brands and retailers have already used the platform to meet $500 million in manufacturing demand.
Behind the scenes, Hanrahan said the company was able to use this unusually large round to build its product database; with the help of artificial intelligence, the startup combined purchased and self-collected data to index more than 763,224 products from 24,027 manufacturers (to use the precise counts currently displayed on Keychain’s website).
Keychain recently opened an office in Austin, struck a deal with Carvel’s pie maker Rich Products, and hired Mitchell Madoff, who previously ran private-label offerings at Whole Foods, as head of retail partnerships.
In a statement, Kevin Spratt, Rich Products’ regional president for the U.S. and Canada, described the partnership as “a strategic move that will enable us to drive greater growth, advance innovation and deliver even more unique value to our customers.”
Similarly, Paul Voge, co-founder and CEO of beverage company Aura Bora, said in a statement that Keychain has “dramatically simplified our supply chain” and “saved us countless hours and resources by eliminating the need to contact manufacturers individually.”
Hanrahan highlighted a number of broader market forces that he said are driving demand for key rings, from U.S. trade policy that favors domestic production to growing consumer interest in products designed to accommodate a variety of nutritional and allergy needs.
Ultimately, his goal is for Keychain to connect “anyone who wants to make something” with “every single part of the supply chain,” from manufacturers to packaging.
“We want to build the software layer that connects all these pieces,” he said.
