AI-powered supply chain startup Pando secures $30M investment

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Indicating continued strong investment in the supply chain sector, fulfillment management technology start-up Pando today raised $30 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $45 million announced that it had

Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures and Next47. CEO and founder Nitin Jayakrishnan said the new funding will be used to expand his Pando’s global sales, marketing and distribution capabilities.

“We’re not looking to expand into new industries or adjacent product areas,” he said in an email interview with TechCrunch. “Top talent is the foundation of our business. We continue to grow our team at all levels of our organization. Pando is also open to exploring strategic partnerships and acquisitions in this funding round.”

Pando was co-founded by Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar. Abhijeet Manohar previously worked with iDelivery, an India-based freight technology marketplace. The two witnessed first-hand how manufacturers, distributors and retailers struggle with legacy technologies and Point He’s solutions to understand, optimize and manage their global logistics operations.

“Supply chain leaders were throwing people at the problem trying to build their own technology,” he said. “This caught our attention — we We spent months in the warehouse talking to enterprise users and building it. It manages factories, cargo yards and ports and finally decided in 2018 to start Pando to solve global logistics problems through the provision of a Software-as-a-Service platform. ”

There is truth in what Jayakrishnan said about pent-up demand. According to his recent McKinsey survey, supply chain companies had a strong desire for tools that would increase their supply chain visibility. Sixty-seven percent of his survey respondents said they have implemented a dashboard for this purpose, and more than half say they are investing more broadly in supply chain visibility services.

Pando aims to meet this need by unifying supply chain data that resides in multiple silos inside and outside the enterprise, including data about customers, suppliers, logistics service providers, facilities and product SKUs. The platform offers a range of tools and apps to accomplish a variety of tasks ranging from cargo procurement, trade and transportation management, cargo auditing and payment and document management, and dispatch planning and analysis.

Customers can customize tools and apps or build their own using Pando’s APIs. This, combined with the platform’s focus on no-code capabilities, differentiates Pando from incumbents such as SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder and E2Open, he argues, Jayakrishnan. .

“Pando is pre-integrated with leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and has ready APIs and a professional services team to integrate with new ERP and enterprise systems,” he added. rice field. “Pando’s no-code capabilities allow the business user to customize the app while maintaining platform integrity, reducing his IT resources required for each customization.”

Pando also uses algorithms and forms of machine learning to make predictions about supply chain events. For example, the platform attempts to match customer orders with suppliers, customers, through “right” channels (in terms of cost, carbon footprint, etc.) and fulfillment strategies (mode of freight, carrier, etc.). increase. Additionally, Pando can detect anomalies in deliveries, orders and freight bills, and predict supply chain risks based on supply and demand trends.

Pando isn’t the only vendor doing this. Altana, who raised $100 million in venture capital last October, is using AI systems to connect and learn from logistics and his B2B data to create a shared view of his supply chain network. . Another of his Pando competitors, Everstream, offers its own dashboard for data analysis, integrated with his existing ERP, transportation management, and supplier relationship management systems.

But judging by the momentum, Pando has a compelling pitch. The company’s customer base includes Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers including P&G, J&J, Valvoline, Castrol, Cummins, Siemens, Danaher and Accuride. Since the startup’s Series A in 2020, revenue has grown eightfold and the number of customers he has grown fivefold, Jayakrishnan said.

Jayakrishnan was asked whether he expects expansion to continue into the future given signs of impending potential problems. Affected by chain disruptions, he pointed to a Deloitte study that found 90% of those companies were experiencing higher costs and lower productivity.

What are the consequences of these big messes? According to Markets and Markets, the digital logistics market is estimated to reach $46.5 billion by 2025 from $17.4 billion in 2019. From January to October 2022, it is almost above the record level of 2021.

“Pando has a strong balance sheet and income statement with a view to profitable growth,” said Jayakrishnan. “We are expanding our operations in North America, Europe and India. Leveraging Marquee’s customer acquisition and strong network of partners… Pando is well-positioned to ride this wave of growth and drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy. It’s in.”