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 antithetic channels, unit walk hours manually entering them into clunky endeavor bundle systems, and compliance often depends connected spreadsheets.

For decades, bundle vendors person tried, with mixed success, to modernize the workflows down the planetary question of perishable goods.

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

The company, which automates back-office proviso concatenation tasks with AI, has raised $3.8 cardinal successful effect backing led by PennyJar Capital, the task steadfast backed by NBA prima Steph Curry, with 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 the archetypal to export shrimp from India to the U.S. successful the 1930s. Since then, each procreation of his household has worked determination on the seafood proviso chain, including farming, processing, exporting, and importing.

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

When helium returned to the U.S. and began managing ample volumes of seafood imports, helium noticed large 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 concern with razor-thin margins, it’s astir intolerable to win without bully proviso concatenation management. We went done aggregate bundle implementations, but 2 rollouts failed. That’s erstwhile I realized I wanted to physique bundle for this industry, not conscionable enactment successful it.”

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

After 2 decades of missed bundle adoption successful the 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 speech to calls their ERP a indispensable evil,” said the main executive. “Traditional bundle forced teams to rip retired aged processes and follow caller ones. With AI, you don’t request to alteration the process; you conscionable get the enactment done.”

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

Burnt’s archetypal 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, the startup has processed much than $10 cardinal successful monthly orders crossed seafood, specialty goods, and packaged nutrient distributors. One of the U.K.’s largest nutrient conglomerates, with 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 gathering AI for nutrient proviso chains whitethorn dependable unglamorous, Jacob says that’s the point. He argues that decades of failed tech rollouts person near operators skeptical of “tech tourists” with 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 person and present woman — comes from a household that ran restaurants, portion CTO Chandru Shanmugasundaram built bundle systems for edifice applications.

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

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

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

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