A Clear Solution to Supply Chain’s Biggest Problem
A few words about GreatPoint Ventures’ investment in KlearNow
A few words about GreatPoint Ventures’ investment in KlearNow
When I joined GreatPoint Ventures in January, I was really excited to work with a team that sought to support revolutionary entrepreneurs across a diverse array of industries.
Because, for the past 3 years as an investor at Prologis Ventures — the investment arm of the world’s largest industrial real estate owner — my role was to invest primarily in just three verticals: commercial real estate tech, logistics & supply chain tech, and industrial IoT.
Ironic then, that my first deal at GreatPoint would throw me right back into one of those core areas — logistics.
As it turns out, some problems are just too big to ignore.
Over the last three years, I built a supply chain transportation thesis that sought to drive down unnecessary expenses associated with delays through technology (e.g. data platforms, route optimization software) and services (e.g. labor sourcing platforms). Upon meeting Sam Tyagi, Co-Founder & CEO of KlearNow, I quickly realized that Sam and his team were doing exactly that.
KlearNow is the first customs clearance and document management platform built to provide transparency to and for all three of the key players involved in the customers clearance process: Importers, Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers. By building a universally-acceptable, cloud-based platform that has zero integration barriers, KlearNow is a fast and low cost way for any shipment from any country to clear customs.
But why invest?
Because the customs clearance process is riddled with inefficiencies and errors that burden the entire global shipping ecosystem. Outdated technology infrastructures combined with extensive legal oversight produce a cumbersome environment that involves the manual preparation and submission of large amounts of documentation, with rules, regulations, and laws that differ from country to country, and sometimes even from port to port within each country. The manual nature of these processes increase the opportunities for error, which leads to delays, misinformation and unnecessary costs.
And then there’s Covid-19.
At this point it’s probably worth mentioning that we led KlearNow’s Series A round of financing back in January of this year, months prior to the apex of a global pandemic that revealed just how complex and fragile our modern supply chain actually is.
This has been particularly true in the healthcare and food industries, where the scramble for PPE and essential foods items has exposed how inflexible domestic and global trade can be in times of need.
Would a fully digitized buyer-supplier relationship that allowed for the quick identification and recruitment of new suppliers have solved our PPE and food supply issues? Absolutely not. But would it have helped? Without question.
A nimble and fully digitized supply chain is the key to building a global trade network capable of withstanding unforeseen spikes in supply and demand, and KlearNow is helping to pave the path towards that agility.
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