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Here’s the 12-slide pitch deck AI supply chain startup 7bridges used to raise $17 million in a round backed by Maersk’s venture arm
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- 7bridges, which uses AI to make supply chains more efficient and resilient, just raised $17 million.
- The platform can act as a buffer against pandemic panic-buying or a blockage in the Suez Canal.
- We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck the startup used to raise the funds.
A startup helping shipping companies prepare for and react to issues in their supply chains – such as a pandemic panic-buying or a blockage in the Suez Canal – has just raised $17 million in fresh funds.
London-based 7bridges uses AI to pull together currently fragmented data into a logistics platform that helps customers decide when, where, and how to ship goods across the world. Customers can change this depending on their desired price point, carbon footprint, and what’s happening within the logistics network globally.
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Founder and chief executive Philip Ashton established 7Bridges after he witnessed shipping issues get in the way of clinical trials while working for logistics firm World Courier.
“It literally has a direct impact on the availability of drugs to different markets,” he told Insider. “It was a very, kind of visceral translation of how being ineffective from a cost perspective has a direct impact for product availability for people who need it.”
Ashton enlisted the help of childhood friend and IBM consultant Matei Beremski, who he was living with at the time. The pair, who have known each other since they were 11 years old, had a series of late nights and early mornings validating the project before quitting their jobs and launching 7bridges in 2016.
The cofounders hope to systemically overhaul logistics so that supply chains are customer-centric, resilient to disruption, and are more cost-effective while decreasing waste – ultimately improving access to goods worldwide.
Using the 7bridges platform, customers can see how decisions will impact their supply chain and then decide whether to implement them. This could range from seeing the impact of electrifying last-mile logistics to deciding which warehouses to hold stock in or where to route shipments. If there is a disruption, 7bridges can automatically re-route shipments.
The pandemic has strengthened 7bridges’ business case as it exposed the fragility of supply chains, the company said. Some 93% of senior supply-chain executives intended to make their supply chains far more flexible, agile, and resilient as of July 2020, according to McKinsey. The following year, most companies had invested in digitization tools.
“They didn’t have that cliff edge moment where suddenly they just couldn’t serve customers and it was, you know, three months, six months before they could recover from that,” Ashton said of customers already using the 7bridges platform.
The Series A was led by global venture capital fund Eight Roads, with support from existing investors Local Globe and Crane, and strategic investment from Maersk Growth, the venture arm of supply chain giants Maersk.
7bridges, which operates a SaaS model with contracts ranging from one to three years, plans to double its headcount from 45 to 90 in 2022 as it continues to develop its platform and expand internationally.
Check out the pitch deck 7bridges used to raise the round.
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