London headquartered supply chain startup Kavida.ai has raised £900,000 in follow-up seed funding from investors.
Businesses operating in manufacturing or retail can use Kavida for document management, shipment tracking, supplier communication and purchase order risk alerts.
“Disruption in supply chains is commonplace and procurement managers need instant access to data to understand where their order is, when it will arrive and whether there will be any delays or risks,” said Anam Rahman, chief executive of Kavida.ai.
Currently in beta, the startup plans to introduce an AI “co-pilot” that can be tasked with finding purchase order information, identifying delays and carrying out admin.
Supply chain reporting firm Qima fronted the investment. Red Bus Ventures and angel investors – including Chris Adelsbach, Jack Cresswell, Christopher Carter and Ian Kemsley – also participated in the round.
The idea behind Kavida came during its CTO Dr Sumit Sinha’s time at Warwick University.
“While completing my PhD at WMG, Warwick University, I was able to understand the complexities of the automotive supply chain and the impact of disruptions on automotive manufacturing,” Sinha said.
According to the CTO, UK manufacturing will decline by 0.3% this year as a result of SME supply chain issues.
Last month the supply chain startup was accepted onto Digital Catapult’s Supply Chain Hub programme, which makes up to £100,000 available for participating companies.
In total, Kavida has now raised £1.2m. In March last year, Kavida used its AI technology to create dashboards that show all public information relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.