7bridges raises $17M Series A to transform supply chains

This funding round was led by Eight Roads, with strategic investment from Maersk Growth, the venture arm of the global logistics giant. It will allow the company to help businesses enhance their supply chain technology for a resilient and sustainable future. 

17th January, London: 7bridges, the AI-powered logistics platform used by global businesses to transform their supply chains, is increasing the reach of its unique technology and data. Its expansion is backed by a $17M Series A funding round led by global venture capital fund Eight Roads, with support from existing investors Local Globe and Crane. Additional investment from Maersk Growth will provide clients with even more informed, predictive and insightful supply chain decision making thanks to the synergies between 7bridges specialised AI and Maersk’s global logistics network and data.

7bridges’ mission is to use its technology to enable autonomous supply chains that are customer centric, resilient to disruption, more cost-effective, help to decrease waste, and improve access to goods worldwide. Today, the 7bridges platform is used by some of the world’s top ecommerce, retail, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing brands giving them increased logistics visibility and the ability to orchestrate and execute operations across their supply chains. 

In the last two years global supply chain performance has been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic and has had a profound impact on people’s lives. However, while Covid may have exposed and accelerated supply chain fragilities, it was not the cause. 

Historically, businesses have been struggling to rewire their supplier and distribution networks for years; grappling with disconnected data, siloed and outdated technologies and time-intensive manual processes. The result is wasted time, resources and money – up to 50% of logistics spend is squandered. A recent study by McKinsey & Company found that 85% of supply chain executives pointed towards such inefficiencies in their digital technologies as a cause for concern.  

With this latest funding round, 7bridges will focus on increasing the reach of its proprietary AI-powered logistics platform, growing its commercial team and continuing to invest in its unique technology and data. This will enable 7bridges to transform more supply chains and deliver responsive, flexible, sustainable and cost-effective logistics solutions to their customers and consumers. 

Philip Ashton, CEO and Co-Founder of 7bridges said:

“At 7bridges, we are uniquely positioned to help businesses enhance, and future-proof, their supply chains in ways that are more sustainable, resilient, cost-effective and efficient. By harnessing our artificial intelligence to make coherent rapid and adaptive decisions across channels, product categories, geographies and service providers we’re able to transform multiple elements of the supply chain, from planning to execution, inbound and outbound logistics, inventory optimisation to customer experience.”

Davor Hebel, Managing Partner and Head of Eight Roads in Europe said:

“Almost every shipper is facing significant supply chain challenges from rising costs and a changing regulatory environment, and lack the tools and know-how to navigate them. 7bridges is creating a new category of value optimisation software for logistics which has historically only been a service available to the largest shippers from consultants. We are incredibly excited to partner with the 7bridges team as they look to scale the business.”

Oliver Finch, Investment Partner at Maersk Growth said:

“The last two years have drawn supply chains directly into the commercial spotlight. There is an urgent need to innovate in the sector and maintain access to goods we rely on. 7bridges have developed a novel technology solution to digitalise the design, management and optimization of supply chains. 7bridges will enable a wider range of businesses to better harness the power of data and AI to support commercial decision-making. We believe 7bridges has the potential to address a largely unmet market need and significantly improve companies’ supply chains.”

For more information, contact: 

Natalia Radcliffe-Brine, Head of Marketing at 7bridges, [email protected]

About 7bridges

7bridges was co-founded in 2016 by Philip Ashton and Matei Beremski. Through their work in logistics and machine learning, they saw an opportunity to use technology and big data to reverse the systemic waste of money and resources they observed throughout global supply chains. The 7bridges vision is a world where supply chains are flexible, adaptable and sustainable. Today, the 7bridges platform is used by some of the world’s top retail, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and distribution brands to orchestrate and execute operations across their supply chains. 

www.the7bridges.com

About Eight Roads

Eight Roads is a global venture capital firm managing $8bn of assets across offices in the UK, China, India, Japan, and the US. Together with our associated funds, including our US sister fund F-Prime Capital, our 50-year history of investing includes partnerships with over 300 companies such as Alibaba, AppsFlyer, BlackDuck, Cazoo, Chewy, Devoted Health, FarEye, Flywire, Fireblocks, Funnel.io, Gloat, Hibob, Icertis, Made.com, Neo4j, Spendesk, Packlink, Paidy, Ping Identity, Pony.ai, Toast, Wallapop, WuXi PharmaTech. www.eightroads.com

About Maersk Growth

Maersk Growth is the venture arm of A. P. Moller – Maersk with the mission to digitise, democratise, and decarbonise supply chains by backing new business models and technologies. With the aim to unlock growth, we invest in and partner with promising start-ups and visionary innovators – and by injecting our very own rocket fuel we activate our portfolio companies’ full strategic potential.www.maersk.com/growth