SAN MARCOS, Calif. – As supply disruptions continue to mount, manufacturers and logistics companies are feeling increased pressure to stay ahead of the game. Many are looking to leverage technology to help navigate future interruptions, with artificial intelligence leading the charge.
Everstream Analytics, a startup that helps logistics companies avoid risk by using AI, recently secured $24 million in funding from Morgan Stanley. The increased funding comes on the heels of an already successful year, with the company increasing its customer base 550% over the past five months. Its customers include Google, Schneider Electric and Unilever.
“The past two years have shone a light on the criticality of supply chain resilience,” said Everstream CEO Juile Gerdeman. “Everstream gives companies visibility and insights to uncover and predict supply chain disruption from weather events and other disasters to human, sustainability and environmental risks across their entire supply chain. With a record number of new customers – and existing clients expanding their use of the platform – this is the ideal time to harness strategic funding to fuel go-to-market expansion across the globe and accelerate product innovation.”
“Today, more than ever before, a baseline understanding of supply chain risk is critical for any company working with partners and suppliers, but it is not enough,” said Morgan Stanley’s Michael Carroll. “For a company to succeed, it must be able to anticipate disruption and base complex business decisions on reliable, intelligent data.”
Interos Inc., Fero Labs and KlearNow Corp. are just some of the other startups using artificial intelligence to help manufacturers and logistics companies. Interos picked up $1 billion in its latest funding, according to Reuters, which also reported that the market for new technology for supply chains could be worth more than $20 billion in the next five years.
And according to tech research firm Gartner, more than 80% of supply chain applications will use artificial intelligence in some way by the year 2025.
“The world’s gotten too complex to try to manage some of these things on spreadsheets,” said Dwight Klappich, an analyst for Gartner.
