Logistics x AI | The First Wave of Gen AI

The AI innovators transforming the U.S. logistics sector

Co-authored with Chelsea Zhang & Christo Ritter. Initially posted on the Equal Ventures blog here.

The global Logistics sector is a $10 trillion industry that touches everything we consume, yet much of it still runs on a fragmented set of disjointed legacy systems. The transportation infrastructure that enables goods to get from producers to consumers and powers the global economy is overdue for transformation.

For decades, innovation in this complex space focused on data, visibility, and middleware. Now, a new wave of AI-native startups is reimagining the value chain from the ground up. AI is beginning to change how physical goods are sourced, procured, stored, routed, and delivered.

At Equal, we’ve been investing in companies developing purpose-built technology for logistics, retail, and supply chain since our start. We’re extremely excited about the opportunities that AI-native platforms can bring to the space and drive meaningful operating leverage to a space where SaaS 1.0 often fell short.

Against a backdrop of rising inflation, geopolitical uncertainty, margin pressure, and demand volatility, we’ve heard from many supply chain operators that they are searching for solutions that truly move the needle on cost, margin, and/or operational efficiency.

To map out the latest set of startups in the industry, we’ve mapped out the landscape of companies founded post-2020 applying AI to the logistics stack and driving transformation in the sector.

Mapping the Logistics AI Market

To understand where innovation is happening, we’ve mapped the current landscape of startups that are harnessing AI to reimagine the supply chain. Given the interconnectivity of logistics, many solutions target brokers first, before quickly expanding into carriers, shippers, or other industry stakeholders. This interdependency means that it makes sense to map the market along the steps of the logistics journey: as goods are produced, shipped, stored, and delivered to end customers.

• First Mile & Customs: We’re seeing a new wave of companies emerge, ranging from those automating workflows for freight forwarders (Shipflow, Dobby), customs brokers (DocUnlock), and drayage (PortPro). One of the areas where we’ve seen a particularly high concentration of innovation is around duty drawbacks, with numerous players entering the market like Caspian, Pax, and Forge.