Signaling that investments in the supply chain sector remain robust, Pando, a startup developing fulfillment management technologies, today announced that it raised $30 million in a Series B round, bringing its total raised to $45 million.
Iron Pillar and Uncorrelated Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures and Next47. CEO and founder Nitin Jayakrishnan says that the new capital will be put toward expanding Pando’s global sales, marketing and delivery capabilities.
“We will not expand into new industries or adjacent product areas,” he told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Great talent is the foundation of the business — we will continue to augment our teams at all levels of the organization. Pando is also open to exploring strategic partnerships and acquisitions with this round of funding.”
Pando was co-launched by Jayakrishnan and Abhijeet Manohar, who previously worked together at iDelivery, an India-based freight tech marketplace — and their first startup. The two saw firsthand manufacturers, distributors and retailers were struggling with legacy tech and point solutions to understand, optimize and manage their global logistics operations — or at least, that’s the story Jayakrishnan tells.
“Supply chain leaders were trying to build their own tech and throwing people at the problem,” he said. “This caught our attention — we spent months talking to and building for enterprise users at warehouses, factories, freight yards and ports and eventually, in 2018, decided to start Pando to solve for global logistics through a software-as-a-service platform offering.”
There’s truth to what Jayakrishnan’s expressing about pent-up demand. According to a recent McKinsey survey, supply chain companies had — and have — a strong desire for tools that deliver greater supply chain visibility. Sixty-seven percent of respondents to the survey say that they’ve implemented dashboards for this purpose, while over half say that they’re investing in supply chain visibility services more broadly.
Pando aims to meet the need by consolidating supply chain data that resides in multiple silos within and outside of the enterprise, including data on customers, suppliers, logistics service providers, facilities and product SKUs. The platform provides various tools and apps for accomplishing different tasks across freight procurement, trade and transport management, freight audit and payment and document management, as well as dispatch planning and analytics.
Customers can customize the tools and apps or build their own using Pando’s APIs. This, along with the platform’s emphasis on no-code capabilities, differentiates Pando from incumbents like SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder and E2Open, Jayakrishnan asserts.
“Pando comes pre-integrated with leading enterprise resource planning (ERPs) systems and has ready APIs and a professional services team to integrate with any new ERPs and enterprise systems,” he added. “Pando’s no-code capabilities enable business users to customize the apps while maintaining platform integrity — reducing the need for IT resources for each customization.”
Pando makes a best effort to automate processes around the supply chain. Image Credits: Pando
Pando also taps algorithms and forms of machine learning to make predictions around supply chain events. For example, the platform attempts to match customer orders with suppliers, customers through the “right” channel (in terms of aspects like cost and carbon footprint) and fulfillment strategy (e.g. mode of freight, carrier, etc.). Beyond this, Pando can detect anomalies among deliveries, orders and freight invoices and anticipate supply chain risk given demand and supply trends.
Pando isn’t the only vendor doing this. Altana, which bagged $100 million in venture capital last October, uses an AI system to connect to and learn from logistics and business-to-business data — creating a shared view of supply chain networks. Everstream, another Pando rival, offers its own dashboards for data analysis, integrated with existing ERP, transportation management and supplier relationship management systems.
But Pando has a compelling sales pitch, judging by its momentum. The company counts Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers — including P&G, J&J, Valvoline, Castrol, Cummins, Siemens, Danaher and Accuride — among its customer base. Since the startup’s Series A in 2020, revenue has grown 8x while the number of customers has increased 5x, Jayakrishnan said.
Asked whether he expects expansion to continue well into the future, given the signs of potential trouble on the horizon, Jayakrishnan seemed fairly optimistic. He pointed to a Deloitte survey that found that more than 70% of manufacturing companies have been impacted by supply chain disruptions in the past year, with 90% of those companies experiencing increased costs and declining productivity.
The result of those major disruptions? The digital logistics market is estimated to climb to $46.5 billion by 2025, per Markets and Markets — up from $17.4 billion in 2019. Crunchbase reports that investors poured more than $7 billion in seed through growth-stage rounds globally for supply chain-focused startups from January to October 2022, nearly eclipsing 2021’s record-setting levels.
“Pando has a strong balance sheet and profit and loss statement, with an eye on profitable growth,” Jayakrishnan said. “We’re are scaling operations in North America, Europe and India with marquee customer wins and a network of strong partners … Pando is well-positioned to ride this growth wave, and drive supply chain agility for the 2030 economy.”
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in technology, financial and energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also pushed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 171.41 points at 23,298.39.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 278.37 points at 41,369.79. The S&P 500 index was up 38.17 points at 5,630.35, while the Nasdaq composite was up 177.15 points at 17,733.18.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.19 cents US compared with 74.23 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up US$1.75 at US$76.27 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.10 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$18.70 at US$2,556.50 an ounce and the December copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.22 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2024.
The crypto market has recently experienced a significant downturn, mirroring broader risk asset sell-offs. Over the past week, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 24%, reaching $53,000, while Ethereum plummeted nearly a third to $2,340. Major altcoins also suffered, with Cardano down 27.7%, Solana 36.2%, Dogecoin 34.6%, XRP 23.1%, Shiba Inu 30.1%, and BNB 25.7%.
The severe downturn in the crypto market appears to be part of a broader flight to safety, triggered by disappointing economic data. A worse-than-expected unemployment report on Friday marked the beginning of a technical recession, as defined by the Sahm Rule. This rule identifies a recession when the three-month average unemployment rate rises by at least half a percentage point from its lowest point in the past year.
Friday’s figures met this threshold, signaling an abrupt economic downshift. Consequently, investors sought safer assets, leading to declines in major stock indices: the S&P 500 dropped 2%, the Nasdaq 2.5%, and the Dow 1.5%. This trend continued into Monday with further sell-offs overseas.
The crypto market’s rapid decline raises questions about its role as either a speculative asset or a hedge against inflation and recession. Despite hopes that crypto could act as a risk hedge, the recent crash suggests it remains a speculative investment.
Since the downturn, the crypto market has seen its largest three-day sell-off in nearly a year, losing over $500 billion in market value. According to CoinGlass data, this bloodbath wiped out more than $1 billion in leveraged positions within the last 24 hours, including $365 million in Bitcoin and $348 million in Ether.
Khushboo Khullar of Lightning Ventures, speaking to Bloomberg, argued that the crypto sell-off is part of a broader liquidity panic as traders rush to cover margin calls. Khullar views this as a temporary sell-off, presenting a potential buying opportunity.
Josh Gilbert, an eToro market analyst, supports Khullar’s perspective, suggesting that the expected Federal Reserve rate cuts could benefit crypto assets. “Crypto assets have sold off, but many investors will see an opportunity. We see Federal Reserve rate cuts, which are now likely to come sharper than expected, as hugely positive for crypto assets,” Gilbert told Coindesk.
Despite the recent volatility, crypto continues to make strides toward mainstream acceptance. Notably, Morgan Stanley will allow its advisors to offer Bitcoin ETFs starting Wednesday. This follows more than half a year after the introduction of the first Bitcoin ETF. The investment bank will enable over 15,000 of its financial advisors to sell BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC. This move is seen as a significant step toward the “mainstreamization” of crypto, given the lengthy regulatory and company processes in major investment banks.
The recent crypto market downturn highlights its volatility and the broader economic concerns affecting all risk assets. While some analysts see the current situation as a temporary sell-off and a buying opportunity, others caution against the speculative nature of crypto. As the market evolves, its role as a mainstream alternative asset continues to grow, marked by increasing institutional acceptance and new investment opportunities.
