Supply chain automation firm CargoSense has raised $8 million in new funding.
The Series A round was led by Lanza techVentures and included participation from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF), according to a Wednesday (June 12) press release.
The company said the new funding will help it expand its partner network of integrated management systems, data sources, and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platforms available to digital agents running on the CargoSense Visibility operating system.
“This will empower CargoSense’s global customers with the tools to automate and simplify additional aspects of their supply chain operations,” the company said in the release.
“The freight tech landscape continues to grow, and so have the complexities involved with incorporating new innovations into the technology stacks that supply chain teams depend on.”
Among those teams is one at pharmaceutical giant Merck, which worked with CargoSense to automate analysis of its parcel program to catch delivery problems in real time, and optimize decisions around distribution and packaging at the individual parcel level.
The results of this effort, the release said, led to the MGHIF investment in CargoSense to help automate supply chains throughout the pharmaceutical industry.
“Buyers of visibility data and related supply chain technologies for manufacturers and distributors all share an expectation: that it will reduce workloads for their supply chain teams,” said CargoSense founder and CEO Richard Kilmer.
“The reality is frequently the opposite, where there’s a large gap between new technology and their day-to-day operations, and people bridge the gap with additional manual effort and process complexity.”
PYMNTS looked at efforts to update supply chain models earlier this year, noting that they often rely on manual processes and disjointed communication, causing them to struggle to keep up with the demands of 2024’s dynamic markets.
“Recognizing this gap, businesses are increasingly turning to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and blockchain to transform and modernize every aspect of their supply chain processes,” that report said.
And in an interview with PYMNTS, GreyOrange CEO Akash Gupta shed light on how these advanced technologies, including robotics, AI and what he termed “an intelligent software orchestration layer,” have been instrumental in streamlining warehousing and fulfillment processes, while efficiently managing inventory flow and data.
He pointed to this company’s AI-driven platform, which he said models optimal decisions and outcomes to ensure seamless workflow management, and its single-view format for inventory nodes, providing visibility and control of the entire supply chain network.
“You’re getting a holistic view of what’s happening in the network,” Gupta said, “rather than looking at a bunch of Excel files … and it helps the interaction between sales managers and warehouse managers.”
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