Participated · Series B · Jun 2023

WaveBL operates a patented blockchain-based platform for the swift, secure, and authenticated transfer of original and unique electronic trade documents. Its multi-carrier solution is used by the world’s largest ocean carriers, freight forwarders, and other industry players and complies with universal processes and regulations. The company plans to expand new offerings and support scenarios that establish a new benchmark of trust and efficiency in international trade. WaveBL intends to offer a comprehensive digital trade documents solution covering issuance through customs. The recent financing will support those product and go-to-market plans and further solidify its industry position. Financially, the company closed its 2023 financing round at $37M (see fundraising details). WaveBL is a market-leading provider of electronic bills and a digital platform for the electronic transfer of trade documents. Its proprietary blockchain technology enables instantaneous, secure and authenticated transfer of unique electronic trade documents while ensuring compliance with universal processes and regulations. The company's multi-carrier platform is trusted by major ocean carriers and NVOCCs including MSC, ZIM, Hapag Lloyd, ONE, Leschaco and Saco. WaveBL is led by former technological leaders and experts from the Israel Defense Forces. Strong alliances with leading customers and stakeholders are driving faster digitalization and adoption of electronic trade documents. The company plans to use new funding to expand headcount, primarily in sales, marketing, and R&D, to expedite growth and further market adoption.

Led · Series A · Jan 2023

Locad operates a cloud-based “logistics engine” that syncs inventory across sales channels (including Shopify, Lazada, Shopee and TikTok Shops) and manages storage, packing, shipping and tracking through a network of third-party warehouses and carriers. Founded in Singapore and Manila by Constantin Robertz, Jannis Dargel and Shrey Jain, the company serves roughly 200 brands across Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia. Customers typically ship about 25 to 5,000 orders a day; Locad handled more than two million orders last year and reports a 99% same-day order fulfillment rate. Many brands use Locad to replace in-house logistics and consolidate fulfillment across multiple sales channels. The startup plans to add more warehouses and transport operators to its network and to hire across Southeast Asia and Australia. Over the next five years Locad aims to build the region’s largest network of warehouses and expand coverage into Tier 1 to Tier 3 cities to enable same-day delivery widely. Locad offers a cloud software "control tower" that gives sellers real-time visibility into inventory and orders across a partner-managed fulfillment network. The company keeps an asset-light model by partnering with warehouse operators and facility managers while operating seven fulfillment centers. Its platform integrates with sales channels and couriers (Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, Zalora) and is used by more than 30 brands, having processed almost 600,000 items. Clients include Mango, Vans, Payless Shoes, Toshiba and Landmark. Locad was founded in October 2020 and has offices in Singapore, Manila, Australia, Hong Kong and India. The startup plans to use new funding to expand into more Asia-Pacific markets (focusing on Southeast Asia and Australia), add integrations to more couriers and channels, and build additional data-analytics features.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2022

Altana operates a collaborative public-private Value Chain Management System that applies artificial intelligence to the world’s largest assembled body of supply chain data to reveal and manage extended supplier and distribution networks. The platform provides capabilities such as accurate Scope 3 carbon measurement, forced-labor detection, multi-tier supply-demand coordination, risk pricing and insurance, and defenses for critical supply chains. Altana’s customer base includes Maersk, Boston Scientific, ZF, the Lloyd’s Insurance Market, US Customs & Border Protection, and multiple UK government agencies. Founded in 2019 by Evan Smith, Peter Swartz, and Raphael Tehranian, the company has connected and organized comprehensive supply chain data to create a shared source of truth. The recent Series C will fund an ambitious phase of product development to power AI-driven, collaborative workflows enabling public and private sectors to manage security, procurement, compliance, trade, and sustainability across multi-tier value chains. Altana uses AI to sift through data points across the supply chain to identify senders and receivers, classify goods in shipments, rate shipments for customs compliance and surface risks and bad actors. The platform supports federated deployments that generate shared intelligence without sharing underlying user data, and it answers questions about products, shipments, companies and networks. Altana has partnerships including Maersk and has worked with organizations such as RUSI to trace sourcing of components and demonstrate how forced labor can enter supply chains. The company reports 20 customers, including UPS and several undisclosed government agencies, and says it is "running at 12x to 15x growth" this year. Founded in December 2018 by Evan Smith, Raphael Tehranian, Peter Swartz and Alan Bersin, Altana plans to use the new capital to fund aggressive platform and product development and expand its workforce to 110 by late 2022. The startup has demonstrated relevance to new laws and compliance regimes, such as the U.S. import ban on goods produced by forced labor, which has driven customer demand. Altana builds a supply chain knowledge graph and an intelligence layer that operates downstream from existing data sources so customers can combine their own data with other sources. The product offers one-off investigations and simulations and aims to provide real-time alerts and predictive capabilities for disruptions, child labor and environmental violations. Altana sells into procurement teams typically managed in the CFO’s office and the majority of its customers are government clients such as border control. The company emphasizes operating downstream from proprietary data holders so customers can keep control of their data while gaining visibility. The three founders—CEO Evan Smith, CTO Peter Swartz and COO Raphael Tehranian—previously worked together on Panjiva, informing the startup’s approach. Executive chairman Alan Bersin, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, serves as a policy advisor. The company announced a $7M seed financing in the round described in the article.

Participated · Series B · May 2022

Previse is a UK-based SME working capital platform that uses AI-fueled analytical tools to mine data, predict future revenues, and price risk. Its core product provides working capital finance to businesses to fund trade activity. The company highlights that over $24 trillion of trade is carried out each year and says demand for working capital finance is significant. The $18 million first phase of its Series B will be used to expand its footprint around the world and accelerate adoption of its solutions. Paul Christensen, co-founder and CEO, described Tencent's lead in the round as an endorsement of Previse's model and the market opportunity. The firm expects additional capital as the Series B continues. Previse operates an AI-powered instant payment platform called InstantPay that analyses corporate-buyer data to identify the small number of invoices requiring manual intervention so the rest can be paid immediately. The company says its platform processes over 100,000 invoices daily, supporting SMEs with cashflow management. Previse positions its technology as a way to increase supply-chain resilience by accelerating payments from large corporates. The firm plans to push adoption of InstantPay by more large corporate buyers worldwide, according to CEO Paul Christensen. Previse was founded in 2016 and has offices in London and Glasgow. The company recently secured fresh funding to support broader adoption of its instant-payment technology. Previse builds a machine-learning product that enables SMEs and larger B2B companies to be paid instantly on receipt of an invoice. The platform targets reduction of inefficient B2B payment terms that the article cites as costing businesses $300 billion annually. The company plans to use the new funding to develop its product further and scale to meet customer demand, with an expectation of adding to its workforce. Previse reports strong interest from chief financial officers at large corporations since launching. Financially, the firm has raised $7 million in a Series A and earlier received an £800,000 grant from Scottish Enterprise to establish a Glasgow base. It is based in London and has a presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where the grant-funded base created 37 new jobs. Previse is a London-based B2B payment decisions startup that provides large businesses with technology to pay suppliers the day they receive an invoice. It leverages artificial intelligence and hundreds of millions of data points to create an independent score of a multinational buyer’s likelihood to pay an invoice. The company recently secured a £800k R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise. Previse will use the funding to set up a new development centre in Glasgow and create 37 data science jobs. Through a partnership with The Data Lab, Scotland’s Data Science innovation center, Previse is tapping into top Scottish data science academics for two projects to further develop its data analytics technology later in the year. The company was co-founded by CEO Paul Christensen, CPO David Brown, CTO Andre de Cavaignac, Philipp Schoenbucher, and Giulio Rossi. Previse is a London-based company that provides an AI-powered instant B2B payments service for SMEs. Its platform scores the likelihood that a corporate buyer will pay a supplier’s invoice using advanced AI and hundreds of millions of data points. Previse supplies that score to funders, principally banks and asset managers, which pay suppliers instantly on the buyer’s behalf in exchange for a small discount. The company raised £2M in seed funding to continue developing its proprietary AI solution. The round was led by Hambro Perks with participation from Founders Factory and angel investors. Previse is led by co-founder and CEO Paul Christensen and co-founder and Chief Data Scientist Philipp Schoenbucher.

Led · Series B · Mar 2021

Roambee provides real-time location and condition monitoring solutions powered by a cloud platform, purpose-built multi-sensor IoT hardware and global connectivity options. The platform is augmented with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate processes for transparent business operations. Roambee serves more than 300 global enterprises across pharma (clinical trials, cryogenics, hospital medication) and sectors including food & beverage, chemicals, automotive, manufacturing and logistics. The company is led by CEO Sanjay Sharma and has regional offices in Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, UAE, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. Roambee recently closed over $18M in a Series B1 round and intends to use the proceeds to expand its technology, services and global market penetration. Management is targeting a Series C round in Q2 2021. Roambee provides an on-demand shipment and asset monitoring platform for companies in manufacturing, logistics, transportation, finance, pharmaceutical and automotive industries. Its sensor logistics platform uses IoT sensors to collect data, artificial intelligence to deliver insights and foresights, and robotic process automation to automate operations. The real-time, multi-sensor visibility solution monitors goods and assets indoor, outdoor and in-transit to surface metrics such as current location, cold chain status, security breaches (tampering), route deviation and chain of custody. Customers include the top three global companies in pharmaceuticals, global logistics and food & beverages. The company has more than 200 paying customers and operates in Brazil, Mexico, India, Germany, the UK and the UAE. Roambee intends to use the new funds to expand operations and accelerate sales globally. Roambee is an Internet of Things (IoT) company that provides supply chain and enterprise asset visibility through proprietary sensors, software, and cloud technologies. Its platform offers real-time monitoring, alerts, analytics and predictive reporting to help enterprises mitigate risk and improve operations. The company is focused on in-transit and asset monitoring across global logistics networks. Founded in 2013 and based in Silicon Valley, Roambee has expanded across seven countries in the past 14 months. The firm is targeting rapid growth in Southeast Asia and plans to use recent investment to enter Indonesia, where Telkom Indonesia will be among its first regional customers. The company is backed by Deutsche Telekom, MDI Ventures, and other Silicon Valley investors and has received industry recognition including Compass Intelligence and IDC Market Intelligence awards. Roambee combines proprietary low-power sensors with a flexible SaaS analytics platform to deliver real-time supply-chain and condition monitoring for businesses. Its offering is anchored on on-demand, pay-per-use sensors that Roambee can manage for clients or deploy in a consulting-style engagement. The analytics layer prioritizes the most important alerts, makes real-time predictions about goods (e.g., temperature- and humidity-driven spoilage), and can identify which box contains products. The company improved sensor form factor and power management to meet logistics battery restrictions and enables devices to piggyback on networks to return for reuse. Roambee recently closed a $3.1M strategic investment from Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments and secured a partnership with T-Systems to support global expansion. Management says it is exploring additional predictive features to expand its analytics capabilities.