Steph Curry’s Vc Firm Just Backed An Ai Startup That Wants To Fix Food Supply Chains

Food proviso chains are notoriously messy. Orders get done different channels, unit walk hours manually entering them into clunky endeavor package systems, and compliance often depends connected spreadsheets.

For decades, package vendors person tried, pinch mixed success, to modernize nan workflows down nan world activity of perishable goods.

Now, a Y Combinator startup called Burnt thinks AI agents — package that tin automatically grip tasks typically done by humans — tin win wherever accepted endeavor package hasn’t successful nan trillion-dollar U.S. nutrient market.

The company, which automates back-office proviso concatenation tasks pinch AI, has raised $3.8 cardinal successful seed backing led by PennyJar Capital, nan task patient backed by NBA prima Steph Curry, pinch information from Scribble Ventures, Formation VC, and angel investors, including Dan Scheinman.

Burnt co-founder and CEO Joseph Jacob grew up astir nutrient factories. He says his great-grandfather was nan first to export shrimp from India to nan U.S. successful nan 1930s. Since then, each procreation of his family has worked location on nan seafood proviso chain, including farming, processing, exporting, and importing.

Jacob moved to India during his formative years and, aft college, worked connected nan mill level of a shrimp processor successful a agrarian area. The acquisition introduced him to nan intricacies of nan nutrient and edifice business.

When he returned to nan U.S. and began managing ample volumes of seafood imports, he noticed awesome inefficiencies.

“I ended up buying hundreds of millions of pounds of seafood, but everything was tracked connected Excel sheets and a 20-year-old ERP system,” Jacob told TechCrunch. “In a business pinch razor-thin margins, it’s astir intolerable to win without bully proviso concatenation management. We went done aggregate package implementations, but 2 rollouts failed. That’s erstwhile I realized I wanted to build package for this industry, not conscionable activity successful it.”

Jacob’s acquisition isn’t an isolated one. Enterprise vendors person agelong tried to waste distributors connected ample rollouts that resistance connected for years, costs millions, and frustrate nan mini and mid-sized players that predominate nan market.

After 2 decades of missed package take successful nan industry, Jacob believes Burnt’s attack of layering AI agents connected apical of existing systems alternatively than replacing them represents a monolithic opportunity.

“Everyone we talk to calls their ERP a basal evil,” said nan main executive. “Traditional package forced teams to rip retired aged processes and adopt caller ones. With AI, you don’t request to alteration nan process; you conscionable get nan activity done.”

Here’s really it works: income reps astatine nutrient distributors person orders via email, telephone calls, WhatsApp, voicemails, texts, and moreover faxes. Each bid past has to beryllium keyed successful manually. While critical, nan process eats up hours that could beryllium spent connected higher-value activity for illustration winning caller customers aliases upselling existing ones.

Burnt’s first agent, Ozai, automates and manages this order-entry process and tin grip up to 80% of workflows that are presently stuck successful bequest systems.

Since launching successful January, nan startup has processed much than $10 cardinal successful monthly orders crossed seafood, specialty goods, and packaged nutrient distributors. One of nan U.K.’s largest nutrient conglomerates, pinch billions successful revenue, is presently implementing Burnt’s system. The institution is already generating six-figure gross and increasing “steadily” month-on-month, though Jacob declined to stock nonstop numbers.

While building AI for nutrient proviso chains whitethorn sound unglamorous, Jacob says that’s nan point. He argues that decades of grounded tech rollouts person near operators skeptical of “tech tourists” pinch nary manufacture experience. 

His background, arsenic good arsenic that of his co-founders, has helped Burnt summation spot successful a assemblage wherever relationships matter. Chief Product Officer Rhea Karimpanal — Jacob’s puerility friend and now woman — comes from a family that ran restaurants, while CTO Chandru Shanmugasundaram built package systems for edifice applications.

Jacob antecedently worked astatine Rekki, a Benchmark-backed B2B marketplace for restaurants and suppliers, wherever he saw firsthand really brittle proviso concatenation tech could beryllium and really AI mightiness toggle shape it.

Still, winning investors wasn’t straightforward. AI agents whitethorn beryllium hot, but convincing VCs to backmost 1 for nutrient distributors required a different pitch. Many lacked condemnation successful nan marketplace contempt its size, he said. 

That’s wherever Curry’s PennyJar Capital came in. The firm’s thesis is centered connected backing founders who are building successful “overlooked” industries wherever tech take lags. 

“Two decades of missed package take is simply a monolithic opportunity. Investors who understand this cognize it tin beryllium immense if executed right,” Jacob said.