Chamfr Earns Women-Owned Business Certification

Chamfr, a medical device sourcing platform for product development, has won national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

WBENC Certification verifies that a business is at least 51% women-owned, controlled, operated, and managed. The certification process includes a review of ownership, governance, management, financial records, and operational control, as well as a site visit.

The Minneapolis, Minn.-based company provides engineers and procurement teams with a centralized platform to source in-stock and custom components, equipment, tools, and services for early-stage medical device development. The platform consolidates supplier access, streamlines purchasing, and supports the transition from prototyping to design freeze.

Founded in 2017 by Julie Schulte and Katie Karmelek, Chamfr was created to improve medical device engineers’ access to components for early-stage product development. The founders identified challenges caused by fragmented supplier networks and the use of industrial alternatives not designed for medtech applications.

The company said it plans to use its WBENC Certification to increase visibility among OEMs and CDMOs, support supplier-diversity discussions, and explore opportunities to streamline and digitize enterprise purchasing.

Earlier this year, Chamfr began partnering with Zeus to make more than 100 liner and heat shrink products readily available through the former’s online marketplace.

Comments from Chamfr co-founders

Schulte: “WBENC Certification creates an important opportunity for Chamfr to build stronger relationships with medical device OEMs that are focused on both supplier diversity and more efficient product-development sourcing. Our goal is to make Chamfr more accessible within enterprise purchasing processes so R&D and procurement teams can source all the products they need from hundreds of qualified MedTech suppliers through a single platform and purchase order.”

Karmelek: “We started Chamfr because engineers were spending too much time searching for products, requesting samples, and trying to figure out which suppliers could support their projects. Our goal has always been to make sourcing easier and more transparent. Expanding Chamfr within OEM purchasing systems helps bring that access directly into the way engineering teams already work.”