1871 Announces Supply Chain Innovation Lab 2023 Cohort

CHICAGO, August 30 – 1871, non-profit global innovation hub, announces its list of 2023 cohort members for their second annual Supply Chain Innovation Lab, supported by Accenture, Microsoft, Deacero,World Business Chicago, Rheaply, Arkestro, Super Dispatch, Canadian Consulate, and Flock Freight. 

The lab is designed to connect growth-stage and late-stage startups with corporate innovators, VCs, and industry experts to collectively solve key challenges within the supply chain industry to drive industry transformation. 1871 currently has 5 Innovation Labs, this year’s supply chain lab runs in parallel with 1871’s first-ever Foodtech Innovation Lab.

The 34 cohort participants will collaborate with each other and the supply chain innovation ecosystem through 4-months of curated programming, workshops, and group problem-solving sessions. 

Cohort members have solutions that span the end to end supply chain and cover key focus areas for the 2023 lab.

Cohort Members – Design & Engineering 

Awele Technologies Inc. | Godfrey Okeke, CEO & Founder 

Awele is a next-generation AI-powered B2B-platform that lets importers/exporters of vehicles and heavy goods to plan, find, book, ship, track and manage their entire door-to-door cross-border shipping with vetted logistics service providers. We do this by combining AI/ML technologies, data analytics and decades of supply chain expertise.  Just like booking a flight online, the customer enters the origin, destination and shipment information and Awele figures out everything else – available shipping modes, routes, service providers, prices, customs tariffs, transit times, including first and last-mile delivery.

Supply Chain Lab Focus Area: Automation: Unlocking Human Potential

CargoFL | Deepesh Kuruppath, CEO & Founder 

CargoFL is a cloud-based B2B technology ecosystem for logistics. We are amongst the fastest growing logistics tech SaaS companies in the world. CargoFL is digitizing the complete logistics-ecosystem for business-value and efficiency. For End Customers i.e. Shippers, it’s a platform that automates dispatches, consolidates truckers, provides supply chain visibility, vehicle tracking and integrates with their existing ERP for a seamless logistics delivery experience. For Truckers, it’s an ERP-CRM platform that’s digitizing their business and operations. CargoFL e-enables all aspects of their business right from booking to accounting to invoicing and reporting.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Peer Ledger Inc. | Dawn Jutla, Co-CEO & President

Peer Ledger is a Nova Scotia, Canada-based leader in advanced distributed systems and the creator of MIMOSI Connect, a patented digital product passport platform that enables businesses to automatically record, validate and reconcile the provenance, transformation, journey, and sustainability of materials and processes used to create their products. MIMOSI captures Scope 3 carbon emissions and other ESG metrics in companies’ supply chains.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Pollen Returns | Spencer Kieboom, CEO

Pollen, a returns technology platform that revolutionizes ecommerce retail by providing cost-saving solutions and boosted product sales through return pickups. Our proprietary solution optimizes the consumers return experience to streamline the fragmented reverse supply chain process, enabling retailers to reduce expenses while selling more. With image capture, advanced shipping notices, and marketing strategies, Pollen drives overall margin expansion while retailers can focus on the core of their business. 

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Rock15 Inc. | Hoisin Min, CEO & Co-Founder 

“Make every enterprise resilient.” ROCK15 provides automated Supply Chain consultancy based on the architected meta-data even for cost-sensitive small and midsize enterprises. So that they can continuously reorganize their end-to-end supply chain as if the change is another ‘business as usual’. 

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

The Rubic Technologies | Luke Buckberrough, Chief Growth Officer 

Based out of Alberta Canada, The Rubic provides a groundbreaking solution, FreedomPick, which tackles the urgent obstacles encountered in the warehousing and logistics sector. FreedomPick is an independent mobile robot that specializes in picking cases and possesses the versatile nature and adaptability of humans, along with the operational efficiency and productivity of a machine, making it ideal for intricate warehouse tasks. By potentially replacing the workload of four to five workers, significantly boosting efficiency and alleviating labor shortages and costs. Moreover, it stands out by seamlessly integrating into existing operations as they are, eliminating the requirement for expensive and time-consuming retrofits.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Automation: Unlocking human potential 

Transport Genie Ltd. | Joel Sotomayor, CEO & President 

Transporting goods carry high risks, there are many things that can go wrong with the cargo that you are moving such as lower quality products, compromised goods, and economic fines levied as the result of these bad transportation events. We de-risk these movements to increase supply chain resilience, improve traceability, maintain the quality of goods prior to loading them on a transportation vehicle using IoT sensors that monitor micro-climatic conditions and provide real-time precision monitoring and automate timely interventions. We are not just monitoring terrestrial transportation events, we also monitor Oceanic Livestock movements, and our sensors can also be placed inside of barns. Our sensors are ruggedized, easily to clean, scalable, and are applicable to many use-cases and scenarios where timely interventions are needed to ensure quality and supply chain resilience.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Risk Management & Compliance

Cohort Members – Fulfillment 

Brics | Ram Gopalakrishnan, CEO & Founder 

We are a supply chain solutions company that is focused on helping retailers optimize fulfillment planning and execution. Our consulting services focus on strategy and technology enablement for omni-channel fulfillment. With our continuous & predictive fulfillment planning technology, organizations can maximize the window of opportunity between demand planning and fulfillment execution cycles.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

Connect SX | Chris Riedel, CEO 

ConnectSx provides a cloud-based suite of web and mobile tools purpose-built to address the unique challenges of the medical device value chain. By creating efficiencies from the warehouse to the point of use, we bring low-level visibility to critical inventory at every stage of the distribution cycle. With robust logistics management, seamless order/replenishment, automated sales workflows, simplified compliance management, and comprehensive business analytics, ConnectSx saves customers time, reduces inventory waste, increases asset turns, and creates a framework for new business innovation. And with an aggressive roadmap that includes AI (machine learning, computer vision) and advanced automation, we’re positioned to be the competitive advantage our customers need.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

Fenix Commerce Inc. | Akhilesh Srivastava, CEO & Founder 

FenixCommerce is a SaaS company founded by eCommerce veterans with the mission of helping retailers and brands grow profitably with it’s leading eCommerce package delivery management platform using AI and Machine Learning to reduce shipping costs by 25% and cart abandonment rates by 32% while improving customer experience and conversion rates by 40%. FenixCommerce solutions include multi-carrier parcel rate shopping, order routing, estimated delivery dates, branded tracking pages, and proactive delivery alerts and notifications. 

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

Nextuple | Chap Achen, VP of Product Strategy 

Nextuple is a software solutions company that specializes in the OMNI Channel fulfillment domain.   We provide strategy, engineer software and run micro-services that help large OMNI Channel retailers capture the full value of their complex fulfillment networks.  We do this through custom development,  SaaS offerings, and our Nextuple Fulfillment Studio which offers a set of pre-built micro services purpose built to augment and or replace a client’s monolithic technology stack.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

Optiyol | Ozan Gözbaşı, CEO & Co-Founder 

Optiyol significantly improves the transportation landscape for industries such as logistics, retail, CPG, and food & beverage by reducing costs and enhancing operational visibility. It offers advanced route optimization and tracking software that caters to various stages of transportation, including last-mile, middle-mile, and long-haul operations.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

PartRunner | Yosh Rozen, CEO 

We are a logistics marketplace connecting companies to a network of drivers to provide all types of logistics services. From full-day routes to 1-1 deliveries. We operate in the US (4 markets) and within MX (within 6 markets) and have been growing aggressively with mid-market and enterprise companies. Our ideal customers are enterprise companies that deliver thousands of products per day (per month) and already are working with 3rd party providers. If they have “big & bulky” needs, even better.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

PorterLogic | Anya Skomorokhova, CCO & Co-Founder

PorterLogic is a low-code supply chain operations platform for teams who prioritize flexibility and speed. Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers use the visual, low-code platform to build internal applications, connect systems and automate workflows across their supply chain – from inventory and warehousing to order management and forecasting. Rather than being forced into a box by an off-the-shelf system, teams embrace their competitive advantage using a unique platform that molds to their operation, helping the business scale profitably and efficiently.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

Routeique Inc. | Mike Allan, CEO & Founder

Routeique’s cloud-based logistics and supply chain platform was implemented for Nestle to orchestrate their Canadian Ice Cream distribution network in 2016, and has since grown through the ‘network effect’ to support distribution networks for clients like Lactalis and Sargento in North America. Our integration of high-touch and high-tech and insistence on being partners, not vendors, has powered our evolution from a Software as a Service to Supply Chain Solutions as a service. We orchestrate a growing network of partners to deliver results to our clients.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Cohort Members – Sourcing & Procurement 

ASKaFOX Inc. | Hanyin Chen, CEO

ASKaFOX helps global manufacturers rebuild supply chain resiliency through sourcing. Finding different baskets for the eggs is critical for your business. Whereas predictions fail, options prevail. We’re a supplier discovery tool coupled with an Uber-like on-site auditing service. We bridge data efficiency with human expertise, we combine speed with trust.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain 

Daniola Corporation | Sinmi Adeoye-Esene, CEO & Founder 

In an industry with a value of over $600 billion, we are reducing the risk of unethical sourcing. Daniola provides a blockchain and ai based platform that enables verified and vetted buyers and buyers with real time tracking of critical minerals from their origin to end user. Daniola guarantees the traceability of minerals, metals, and gemstones. Its cloud solution allows buyers to verify the origin of the critical minerals and metals they have acquired, ensuring that the provenance is ethical.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Justice Bid | Omar Sweiss, CEO & Founder 

Bringing supply chain to Legal for the first time. Justice Bid, headquartered in Chicago, is a minority-owned diversity analytics and RFP/e-auction company that increases the transparency, value, and impact of outside counsel selection. Justice Bid’s platform is powered by data-driven insights that bring the selection of outside counsel into the fold of procurement best-practices, thereby ensuring corporate legal departments obtain better matter outcomes, increase diversity on their matters, control costs, and simplify processes.  JB also brings Tier 1 and 2 spend visibility alongside ESG ratings of the legal supply chain.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Sustainability

nuTRAD.io | John Abrams, CEO & Founder 

We are an experienced team building the future of AI workflow for complex supply chains. We are redefining how the global supply chain network functions – automating outdated manual processes and removing waste, error, and cost. To market, move, and sell a product anywhere, brands use people to match their data to unique and variable requirements everywhere. The process is costly, tedious, and infinite. People cannot keep up. nuTRAD AI can.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

Porth | Gustavo Matte Daniel, CEO

Porth is an international supply chain control tower that automates the processes and gives real-time visibility and collaboration to companies to improve control and decision-making.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

Realizse | David Menard, CTO

Realizse offers higher quality carbon credit products by tracking supply chain emission reductions.  With Realizse, companies are able to stack incentives while meeting compliance. Realizse offers a saas solution to unlock liquidity with the use of forward contracts.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Sustainability

Cohort Members – End-to-End (E2E) 

Preteckt | Sasha Kucharczyk, COO

Preteckt empowers vehicle maintenance teams to turbocharge their decision-making. Preteckt provides cloud-based software which augments and automates the diagnostic decision-making of vehicle maintenance technicians. The software’s output are Repair Plans that detail upcoming and current maintenance issues, their root cause, and what actions should be taken to fix the identified issues. The software has been deployed in numerous trucking and bus fleets where it has been shown to increase technician productivity by over 70%, decrease parts costs by over 20%, and decrease service failures by over 50%.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

Rivercity Innovations Ltd. | Jeff Shirley, CEO & Founder

Rivercity Innovations manufactures our own TxH temperature monitor sensor which is used for cold chain automation in supply chain. The sensor uses LPWan IoT technology to digitize the compliance data into our dashboard for our clients use enabling prevention of food loss and digitization of compliance data in retail and last mile delivery situations. Rivercity Innovations has a hardware revenue model and a Saas revenue model which has a ROI to our enterprise clients of approximately 5 months under normal operating environments. The solution is available across North America and Europe in English, Spanish, and French.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Risk Management & Compliance

Sourcehub ai Inc. |  John Moran, CEO & Founder 

SourceHub is a cutting-edge supply chain management solution provider that empowers businesses with end-to-end visibility, collaboration, and automation. Our platform revolutionizes supply chain operations by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. With advanced analytics and AI-driven proactive risk mitigation, we enable businesses to make data-driven decisions, optimize inventory management, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Tag-N-Trac Inc. | Venu Gutlapalli, CEO

Tag-N-Trac provides complete visibility & traceability for an end-to-end supply chain covering manufacturing, warehousing, and cross-modal transport ecosystem. Our RELATIVITY platform combined with smart sense labels and tags provides solutions in Pharma, Food, and High-Value goods. The platform capabilities include data fabric for supply-chain, and advanced analytics enables to drive improved decision-making via actionable insights, proactive communications with critical stakeholders, and compliance with regulatory and internal requirements. 

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

The Owl Solutions | Hugo Fuentes, CEO & Co-Founder 

Every manufacturing company has lots of data. However, too many roadblocks prevent midsize organizations from turning raw data into business outcomes. At The Owl Solutions, we are on a mission to empower supply chain professionals with AI-driven assistants that understand the job to be done and work relentlessly to reduce financial, environmental and productivity waste.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Operational Efficiency

14bis Supply Tracking | Eleanor Mitch, CEO & Co-Founder 

For Aerospace and Defense logistics and supply chain operators, 14bis simplifies complexity to empower local actors at last mile. 14bis solves this complexity problem with its encrypted platform for secure data sharing and analytics models that help users avoid harmful shortages or wasteful oversupply for end-to-end visibility and accountability. In this way, humans and systems in last mile get the information they need to operate effectively. We focus on interoperability and leverage AI and blockchain so that the right supplies arrive on time. 14bis helps customers avoid mission performance risks as early as possible.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Cohort Members – Warehousing, Manufacturing, & Planning

Arvist | Nilay Parikh, CEO & Founder 

Arvist addresses a pressing problem in the warehousing and distribution center space, that of a lack of end-to-end operations visibility where millions of workers are employed. This visibility gap creates inefficiencies, downtime caused by human errors, and workplace injuries, resulting in over $250 billion in redundant costs.There is a critical need for a solution that can provide actionable insights, streamline operations, and mitigate risks within these industrial environments without asking the operators to invest in expensive new infrastructure like robots, IoT sensors or wearables. Arvist leverages existing security cameras, AI-powered Digital Twin technology, and advanced analytics to provide end-to-end visibility, enhance efficiency, improve safety, and reduce costs.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

Cyberworks Robotics | Vivek Burhanpurkar, CEO

We have developed an autonomous self-driving technology platform that adds self-driving capability to existing manually operated material handling supply chain equipment like forklifts and tow-tugs. We have already deployed 18 autonomous tow-tugs to an industrial greenhouse and are now working with one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers to deploy the technology in their facilities. 

Supply Chain Focus Area: Other

Elixia Inc. | Sanket Sheth, Founder 

Elixia is a suite of 12 interlinked products focusing on reducing costs and increasing visibility from dispatch to delivery. Intelligent Delivery Orchestration Platform is built with a mission to improve the logistics industry by introducing cutting-edge technological advancements in the area of the supply chain. Our solutions empower the supply chain functions of a company to take actionable business decisions by converting data into information. Our solutions ensure a seamless, accurate, and real-time flow of information across the enterprise.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

Freightflow | Richard Yi, Chief Product Officer 

Freightflow is a leading cloud-based TMS built for the perishable produce industry. Growers/shippers, wholesalers and distributors, and produce-focused 3PLs use Freightflow for 360-degree visibility, simplified communications, and increased efficiency, resulting in improved profitability. Freightflow’s load and route optimizer, insightful analytics, and industry-leading integrations empower logistics teams to procure quality capacity at the right prices—ensuring exceptional on-time deliveries.

Supply Chain Focus Area: A.I. in Supply Chain

MagicLogic Optimization Inc. | Tim Smith, CEO

MagicLogic is an independent software company based in Vancouver, BC. We were established in 1995 and have been a Top 100 Logistics IT provider for 20 years. We specialize in load optimization software suitable for all sizes of companies. Our software helps manufacturers, retailers and logistics businesses in the supply chain to load products optimally into railcars, containers, trucks, ULDs and into cartons and onto pallets. Our software helps businesses avoid excess packaging, minimizes damage and ensures items are loaded safely complying to loading rules, including HAZMAT. Businesses can save on time, materials, and returns due to damages.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Optimizing for the End User

SC Tech | Jeff Beyle, CEO

If you read articles about what some companies are doing with AI, sensors, and other such technologies and think – very interesting, but not realistic for us. We can help. Our hardware-agnostic software system makes advanced technologies truly accessible to small and mid-size companies. We help you realize efficiencies by capturing the data you need and making it available where it is needed, when it is needed.

Supply Chain Focus Area:  Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

SIRL | Michael Wang, CEO

SIRL is a Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform that can track asset locations and deliver timely and powerful insights. Its patented solution is unique on the market in offering a wireless energy-harvesting infrastructure that is lower costly to set up, highly accurate, supports a wide range of asset tags and all modern smart devices, and functions across indoor and outdoor sites. SIRL’s platform has demonstrated more than 60% reduced time in finding items, resulting in significant labor savings, material loss prevention, and productivity improvements.

Supply Chain Focus Area: Connected Supply Chain/Visibility

About the program 

Cohort members will participate in 4-weeks of hybrid programming, alternating each week for virtual and in-person experiences in July, August, September, and October 2023. 

The program culminates with a capstone-like event, the Supply Chain Innovation Summit, open to the public on 10.04.23. 

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For inquiries about involvement in partnering with us or learning more about sponsor options for the Supply Chain Innovation Summit, connect with our team. 

About 1871

1871 is Chicago’s innovation hub and the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world. It exists to inspire, equip, and support early-stage, growth-stage, late-stage,  and corporate innovators in building extraordinary businesses. 1871 is home to ~400 technology startups, ~200 growth stage companies, and ~1,500 members, and is supported by an entire ecosystem focused on accelerating their growth and creating jobs in the Chicagoland area. The member experience includes virtual and in-person access to workshops, events, mentorship, and more. The nonprofit organization has 350 mentors available to its members, alongside access to more than 200 partner corporations, universities, education programs, accelerators, venture funds and others. Since its inception in 2012, more than 850 alumni companies are currently still active, have created over 14,500 jobs, and have raised more than $3.5 billion in follow-on capital.