Supply chain integrity platform provider Overhaul today announced that it has raised $17.5 million, which CEO Barry Conlon said will be used to bolster its product offerings and grow its Austin-based team, as well as its European headquarters in Ireland. The funds will also fuel the development of AI products to predict supply chain disruptions and recommend resolutions, which could help Overhaul’s customers avoid costly and time-consuming shipping delays.
“Every company is looking for a way to use data to increase productivity while decreasing costs and risk,” said Conlon, the BlackRock managing partner who founded Overhaul after a stint at FreightWatch International (which was acquired by United Technologies) and an 11-year tenure in the Irish Special Forces Operations unit. “Overhaul is continually disrupting the logistics industry, arming our clients with the tools and transparency to cut supply chain risks and inefficiencies, enhance quality and control across their supply chain, and improve overall customer satisfaction to stay ahead of the curve,” Conlon said.
Overhaul’s platform lets customers integrate cargo sensors, fleet telematics, trailer systems, and more to detect and correct supply chain noncompliance. Customers get on-time performance and in-transit risk monitoring and a rule and alert creation system developed around their individual compliance criteria. Admins can configure control panels to monitor cargo from pickup through final delivery, which Overhaul claims improves communications between operations teams and providers.
Overhaul says it works directly with vendors to connect telematics, as well as tracking and temperature-monitoring devices. A driver-monitoring app provides tracking capabilities and a workflow management dashboard to keep drivers informed and in compliance, and the app helps those drivers plan routes by keeping them informed of shipment instructions and spotlighting rest areas, repair shops, and truck stop locations. Paperless bills and proofs of delivery can be uploaded to the monitoring app directly, and because the app is non-exclusive, it plays nicely with most any broker, carrier, or shipping product.
AI and machine learning have become increasingly essential to the work at Overhaul, the company told VentureBeat via email. For example, the sensors from the hundreds of thousands of shipments its systems monitor are often configured to different specifications, so Overhaul leverages a model to learn the reporting frequency, sensor accuracy, and tolerance levels of each data source. It uses those learnings to profile the devices, normalize event detection, and ultimately apply the information to customers’ configurable workflows. In the future, as Overhaul’s data sets grow, the company plans to build AI that profiles more than anomalies.
“Data science and analytics are a growing department within Overhaul,” said the company spokesperson. “With the level of activity that is understood by our system, we have a treasure trove of data that can benefit many aspects of our customers’ organizations. [C]lients have been able to investigate and improve asset utilization, provider performance, quality control, and even customer service … Our goals are to provide such unexpected discoveries for our clients through our data products. In order to do so confidently, it’s important that we carefully validate the data and the models we build around it.”
Overhaul says it has Fortune 100 customers moving freight globally in the pharmaceutical, high-tech, and food industries. In the past year, the company has tripled in size to about 50 people, and it’s set to repeat that growth in 2020.
It’s certainly primed for growth. According to Gartner, by 2023 at least 50% of large global companies will be using AI, advanced analytics, and internet of things technologies in supply chain operations. Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company estimates that companies that “aggressively” digitize their supply chains can expect to boost annual interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) growth by 3.2% and annual revenue growth by 2.3%.
“Amazon easily demonstrates how world-class supply chain management is a powerful advantage,” said Edison Partners general partner Ryan Ziegler. “Today, true supply chain visibility is nonexistent for most global businesses. Overhaul’s device- and data-agnostic solution approach generates the actionable oversight and real-time data that global companies need to gain a competitive advantage, along with the ability to mitigate risk and significantly reduce costs.”
Growth equity investor Edison Partners led this latest funding round, with participation from existing backer Abbey International Finance Group. This brings Overhaul’s total raised since its founding in 2016 to $27.5 million, following a $7 million venture series in May 2019 and a $4.5 million seed round in December 2017.
Author: Kyle Wiggers.
Source: Venturebeat
