Wilmington-based software startup Ohanafy announced a step further into the distribution market on Friday, launching a supply chain automation platform.

The startup is growing fast, surpassing the expectations of its CEO, Ian Padrick. Its entrance into new industries is on the horizon, he said, as well as plans to complete its first formal funding round.

According to a news release, Ohanafy's new supply-chain platform features inventory, warehouse and financial management, sales invoicing and delivery and route planning capabilities. The product is marketed towards distributors, a new customer for Ohanfy, which once specialized in craft breweries.

"The product itself is flexible, in that, over the long term, we'll sell to distributors in many different industries," Padrick told the Business Journal.

Its product's backbone, and what gives the company its competitive edge, according to Padrick, is Salesforce, a customer relationship management software. Salesforce connects distributors and manufacturers. Ohanafy uses the software to automate as much of the distribution process as possible, Padrick said.

The supply chain automation platform will allow beverage distributors to improve transparency with suppliers, stated the news release. The added clarity can lead to facilitated decision-making, and because the software is built on Salesforce, it is scalable.

Ohanafy's team of engineers and customer support staff has tried to solve a host of beverage industry-specific supply chain issues and integrate the solutions into the new platform, Padrick said. The team will continue updating the platform as it rolls out.

While the beverage industry is still the startup's core focus, its growth from back-end management of local breweries to scaling supply chains for national distributors has come faster than Padrick expected, he said.

Until this latest update, Ohanafy's business was craft beverage management. Its software helped independent brewers keep track of product batches, finished inventory, and sales. The company attended the National Beer Wholesalers Association conference in October, signaling its interest in expanding into the beverage distributor market.

"Our long-term vision that we have for the company, it's really supply chain automation," Padrick said. "We've always wanted to build a product for distributors and sell into the distribution space; I don't think we knew it was going to come this fast."

Ohanafy has yet to partner with any additional industries officially, but in 10 years, Padrick hopes to have a section of the website with a menu of industries it's serving, beverage being one of many. 

Padrick described being "pulled into" the distribution market and said he feels there is a need for Ohanafy's technology in many different areas. 

He said building the technology to accommodate many industries will require time, energy and capital. To provide those resources for his team, Padrick said Ohanafy plans to expedite its Series A funding plans. The startup plans to close its Series A funding round at the end of the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, Padrick said.