TL;DR:
- Pando secures $30 million in Series B funding, bringing total funding to $45 million.
- The funding round was led by Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Next47.
- Pando focuses on developing advanced fulfillment management technologies for the supply chain sector.
- The startup plans to expand global sales, marketing, and delivery capabilities with the new capital.
- Pando consolidates fragmented supply chain data and offers customizable tools and applications.
- The platform leverages algorithms and machine learning for supply chain predictions and risk detection.
- Pando competes with companies like Altana and Everstream in the supply chain technology space.
- Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers, including P&G, J&J, and Siemens, are among Pando’s customers.
- Pando has experienced significant revenue and customer growth since its Series A funding.
- The digital logistics market is expected to reach $46.5 billion by 2025.
- Pando aims to drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy by expanding operations and securing partnerships.
Main AI News:
Signaling the continued strength of investments in the supply chain sector, Pando, a pioneering startup focused on developing advanced fulfillment management technologies, announced today that it has successfully secured $30 million in a Series B funding round. This recent injection of capital brings Pando’s total funding to an impressive $45 million.
The Series B round was led by prominent investment firms Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures, with strong participation from existing investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Next47. The substantial funding will be instrumental in supporting Pando’s ambitious plans to expand its global sales, marketing, and delivery capabilities.
In an exclusive email interview with TechCrunch, Nitin Jayakrishnan, the CEO and founder of Pando, outlined the startup’s strategic vision. He emphasized that the company’s primary focus would be on reinforcing its talented workforce at every level of the organization, considering human capital as the cornerstone of its operations. Jayakrishnan further disclosed that Pando is open to exploring strategic partnerships and acquisitions as part of its growth strategy.
The inception of Pando can be traced back to the collaboration between Nitin Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar, who previously worked together at iDelivery, an innovative freight tech marketplace based in India. Drawing from their firsthand experiences, the duo recognized the immense challenges faced by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers due to outdated technology and fragmented solutions when it came to comprehending, optimizing, and managing their global logistics operations. This realization prompted them to establish Pando in 2018, offering a powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform designed to revolutionize global logistics.
Jayakrishnan’s assessment of the industry’s demand for efficient solutions holds true, as corroborated by a recent survey conducted by McKinsey. The survey revealed a compelling desire among supply chain companies to leverage tools that provide enhanced visibility into their operations. Sixty-seven percent of respondents confirmed implementing dashboards for this purpose, while over half expressed their commitment to investing in comprehensive supply chain visibility services.
Pando intends to address this critical need by consolidating fragmented supply chain data, which often resides within various silos both inside and outside an enterprise. This extensive data includes valuable insights about customers, suppliers, logistics service providers, facilities, and product SKUs. Pando’s platform offers a wide range of tools and applications tailored to specific tasks across freight procurement, trade and transport management, freight audit and payment, document management, dispatch planning, and analytics.
One of the standout features of Pando is its high degree of customization. Customers can personalize the tools and apps according to their unique requirements or develop their own applications using Pando’s robust APIs. This emphasis on customization, coupled with the platform’s no-code capabilities, sets Pando apart from established incumbents like SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, and E2Open, as noted by Jayakrishnan.
Pando also excels in seamless integration with leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, as it comes pre-integrated with these platforms. Additionally, the company’s professional services team and readily available APIs ensure smooth integration with any new ERPs or enterprise systems. The no-code capabilities of Pando empowers business users to customize the platform’s apps while maintaining the integrity of the overall system, reducing the reliance on IT resources for each customization.
Harnessing the power of algorithms and machine learning, Pando leverages cutting-edge technology to make accurate predictions about supply chain events. The platform employs sophisticated matching algorithms to connect customer orders with the most suitable suppliers and fulfillment strategies, taking into consideration factors such as cost and carbon footprint. Additionally, Pando’s advanced capabilities enable it to detect anomalies in deliveries, orders, and freight invoices, as well as anticipate potential supply chain risks based on demand and supply trends.
While Pando is not the sole player in this arena, it distinguishes itself through its unique offerings. Altana, a notable competitor, secured $100 million in venture capital funding last October and utilized an AI system to analyze logistics and business-to-business data, generating a shared view of supply chain networks. Everstream, another formidable rival to Pando, provides its own data analysis dashboards seamlessly integrated with existing ERP, transportation management, and supplier relationship management systems.
Nevertheless, Pando’s momentum speaks for itself, with an impressive clientele that includes Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers. Esteemed companies such as P&G, J&J, Valvoline, Castrol, Cummins, Siemens, Danaher, and Accuride have all chosen Pando as their trusted partner. Since it’s Series A funding round in 2020, Pando has experienced exponential growth, with revenue skyrocketing by 8x and customer numbers multiplying by 5x, according to Jayakrishnan.
When questioned about the potential challenges on the horizon, Jayakrishnan exuded confidence in Pando’s continued expansion. He cited a Deloitte survey that revealed over 70% of manufacturing companies had been affected by supply chain disruptions in the past year, resulting in increased costs and declining productivity for 90% of those companies.
As a result, the digital logistics market is projected to reach a staggering $46.5 billion by 2025, a significant surge from $17.4 billion in 2019, as reported by Markets and Markets. Crunchbase data further reveals that from January to October 2022, investors injected over $7 billion into seed to growth-stage rounds globally for startups focused on supply chain innovation, nearly surpassing the record-setting levels of 2021.
“Pando boasts a robust balance sheet and profit and loss statement, prioritizing profitable growth,” Jayakrishnan declared. “We are expanding our operations in North America, Europe, and India, securing partnerships with renowned industry leaders, and securing major customer wins. With these foundations in place, Pando is poised to ride the crest of this growth wave, driving supply chain agility for the 2030 economy.”
Conlcusion:
Pando’s successful funding round and remarkable growth trajectory signify a significant shift in the supply chain market. With its advanced technologies, customizable solutions, and impressive clientele, Pando is positioning itself as a formidable player in the industry. As supply chain disruptions continue to impact manufacturing companies and drive increased demand for efficient logistics solutions, the projected growth of the digital logistics market presents ample opportunities. Pando’s expansion plans, strategic partnerships, and focus on profitable growth position it well to capitalize on this market growth and drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy.
