7bridges raises $17M to automate logistics supply chains using AI – TechCrunch

Supply Chain Logistics – Obtaining components and finally finished products from A to B to C – is one of the most important for running a business, not least because it involves dozens of companies, hundreds of mergers and acquisitions. , Accounts for world events outside of your business, hours for many people to know everything. He called a beginner today 7 bridges Intends to simplify that through an AI-based automation platform – to provide optimized advice on how to move the company’s supply chain, operating and logistics data to consumer products – announces $ 17 million new funding Desire.

Eight WaysFideliti-backed investment company is leading the round for 7bridges in London, while Local Globe and Enterprise VC Crane have both invested in the 7 bridges race in 2020. Behemoth Mars is being rolled out through the Maersk Growth Fund, and as a strategic backbone, Maverk will integrate logistics and transportation data with 7bridges into 7bridges, making it easier for its Marx customers to manage logistics. Price not specified. 7 bridges have so far raised over $ 20 million.

This series A comes after two years of strong growth for 7 bridges, providing equipment to nearly 20 large multinational companies today. As companies such as Amazon have shown, having a well-functioning logistics supply chain can be a big challenge. 7pridges CEO Philip Ashton, who co-founded the company with Matei Beremski (CTO), said the concept was of great interest to 7bridges. Then came Covider-19.

“The epidemic is still a time of awareness for companies on the sand,” he said. “Having an adaptive supply chain is a matter of business savings.”

The essence of the challenge (and opportunity) that 7bridges is hosting is how supply chain business models have evolved over the years and also stem from world events. Supply chains and commodity movements are two of the most fragmented areas, which has become more pronounced over the past two years. Covid-19 completely terminated the number of partners in the company’s supply chain (if they continue to operate fully).

At the same time, Covide-19 has created a huge demand for many businesses – especially in areas such as e-commerce, but any business that distorts itself due to disruption anywhere (for example, when a pharmaceutical company looks for more orders) is only partially depleted by drugs or people are more concerned about their health. ).

Typically, a company can ship more than 30 different suppliers in the normal course of business, parts of the suppliers, or all of your products around the world. Those partners typically operate within their own data silos, and some are far from embarking on the so-called “digital transformation” journey. That means there are still amazing companies in the business world that use old, analog, paper-based systems.

All interruptions and old-fashioned methods add up to great efficiency. 7bridges quotes data from McKinsey estimating that 50% of logistics costs go to waste and fall into gaps in company models. At the same time, there is a desire to invest more to fix this.

These are just a few of the reasons why Maersk invested. “Over the past two years, the supply chain has been directly focused on trade,” said Oliver Finch, a partner for Marsk Development Investment. “There is an urgent need to innovate in the sector and maintain access to our trusted products. 7bridges has developed a new technology solution to digitalize the design, management and optimization of supply chains. We believe it has the potential to address market demand and significantly improve the supply chain of companies.

In fact, with the advent of AI and automation in all areas of business today, there was no idea that a company could come up with a platform to bring it all together.

This does not mean that others have not tried it before, but that, according to Beremsky and Ashton, efforts have not gone unnoticed — either the time in the market is not right (the crucial quantity is not on the ship) or the technology is still not there.

“Companies had cracks here 15 and 20 years ago, but awareness and technology are not exactly the same,” Ashton said.

“There are a lot of computing resources right now, and the level of machine learning, system maturity and rigorous learning and math optimization, have really only emerged in the last three or four years,” Beremski added. “Logistics is undergoing digital transformation, which means all services are now available through APIs and are easily accessible.” Building a system like 7bridges’, and all the things that get customers into the ship are more realistic.

It also helped to create a wave of other technological beginnings by planning a more evolutionary course in space to address the logistics equation. They include such as Flexxport, Zenkargo, and so on. Last-mile shipping start giant wave; ERP companies such as Xentral; And focus on digitalizing and degrading production capabilities such as Xometry. All of these additional companies are laying the groundwork for coming together and solving other aspects of space.

In a statement, Davor Hebel, Managing Director of Eight Roads Management in Europe, said: “7bridges is creating a new category for logistics value enhancement software that is historically available to large exporters.