To logisticians

In the now and future of logistics, I aim to provide an in-depth analysis of the news, trends, and technology happening in the logistics & supply chain space in under 5 minutes or less.

The goal is to keep logisticians in the know of what is happening in the industry. For weekly news expect them Monday and Thursday while in-depth analysis on select topics in the space: Wednesday and Sunday.

In today’s Inbox:

• In the box; Wayve, Veo Robotics, Chargel, Aurora…

• E-commerce logistics: Bed Bath & Beyond and TreviPay

• Technology: AI in logistics, and Robotics delivery

• Old guards: Target, and Nissan

Let’s dive in.

Silent reading time: 4 mins 413 secs [ 1,000 words ]

In the Box

Chargel raises $2.5 million seed round

After realizing the inefficiencies in Senegal’s logistic industry, two brothers ( Moustapha and Alioune Ndoye) have recently ventured into trucking businesses with the launch of Chargel after exiting from the tech hospitality start-up Teranga in 2018.

The logistic start-up that matches shippers to transporters came out of stealth last year and has closed a $2.5 million seed round led by Logos Ventures. Other participants include Ventures Platform, Foundation Botnar, DFS Labs, and Seedstars.

The funding includes $500,000 in debt from Seedstars and $750,000 that was announced last year.

Wayve partners with Asda for autonomous grocery delivery trials.

The London-based self-driving start-up Wayve has teamed up with Asda - UK’s second-largest online supermarket to autonomously deliver groceries to over 72, 000 households in London.

The Wayve trial will join the existing online deliveries from Asda’s Park Royal superstore in West London.

Customers will be able to make orders online and expect next-day delivery as usual, however, the difference is, self-driving deliveries would be done randomly from select customers.

Ox raises $12.6 million for human-centered AI in supply chain

The leading innovation company for human wearable devices for workers operating in manual processes such as warehouse fulfillment recently closed $12.6 million Series A.

The Operation Experience (OX) platform funding was co-led by BBG Ventures and MaC Venture Capital. Other participants from existing investors include; Cortado Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Florida Funders, KCRise, Tech Square Labs, and Vuzix, and new investors, Atento Capital and Agya Ventures

“Our mission is to use software to improve the experience of frontline workers and drive better business outcomes. - CEO and Founder Charu Thomas.

Aurora and Continental partner to scale autonomous trucking systems

Aurora Innovation has stuck exclusive partnership with Continental - the German multinational automotive parts manufacturing giant to help scale its commercial autonomous trucking systems ( hardware & software).

The Aurora Driver system will be integrated with the hardware commercially produced by Continental.

“Delivering autonomous vehicles at scale has the potential to dramatically transform modern transportation, bringing new accessibility, safety, and efficiency to the movement of goods and people,” - Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora.

Veo Robotics raises $14 million to accelerate’s its strategy

The start-up offering intelligent safeguards for industrial robots recently announced a closing of $14 million to enable it to deploy its proprietary collaborative and human-in-the-loop robots to select company partners.

The funding which now totals $29 million was led by the following:

• Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund

• Yamaha Motor Ventures

• Safar Partners

E-commerce Logistics

Bed Bath & Beyond Bankruptcy

The American home goods retailer filed for bankruptcy last week after a series of failed efforts to keep operations running.

However, the business noted it’s still marketing it to avoid outright liquidation.

The company is hoping a buyer will be willing to purchase either Bed Bath & Beyond or Buy Buy Baby as standalone businesses, buy the brands’ intellectual property and perhaps take on a few of their better-performing stores.

TreviPay and Miraki

The global payments TreviPay and Software-as-a-service (SaaS) Miraki enabling enterprises to manage their marketplaces for dropship business recently partnered to offer centralized financing, invoicing, and payments for these marketplace businesses.

The centralized solution will be available for manufacturers, distributors, and group purchasing that use the Miraki marketplace.

Technology

AI in logistics

Deloitte recently launched a suite of artificial intelligence solutions for logistics and retail.

The leading consulting giant has partnered with the leading Chip- maker NVIDIA to build a Quartz AI package to help users enhance customer experience, optimize operations and launch in new markets.

One of the solutions for Deloitte is Compose AI enables dynamic fleet routing and dispatch optimization, enabling faster delivery, cost reduction, and customer satisfaction.

Robotics delivery

In a recent iF Design Award 2023 by Pudu Robotics, the prestigious award went to SwiftBot - the next-generation mobile robot.

The award is given each year by 133 experts and SwiftBot took the shine for its aesthetic capabilities.

SwiftBot's human responsiveness comes thanks to a detection algorithm that allows the robot to detect people in the vicinity and to allow them space to pass by before continuing with its task at hand.

Old Guards

Nissan

The automotive giant recently executed a Project44 software solution to get end-to-end supply chain visibility for its shipments.

“By using the project44 platform ... we can obtain and visualize movement information, which has been partially obtained only in analog form, in real-time,” the spokesperson said.

Target

The retail giant is rolling out its curbside return service nationwide to over 2,000 locations.

Target will offer the ability for goods to be returned to the store compliments of the company’s curbside pickup call Drive Up.

“Allowing our guests to process a return from the comfort of their car underscores our commitment to helping our guests shop — and return — however they choose, -Target Executive Vice President and Chief Stores Officer Mark Schindele said.

That is it for now.

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To more tech in logistics.

Okerosi.