Note: This article has been updated to showcase Paxafe’s post-valuation provided by the company.
Paxafe, an AI software provider for the cold chain market, announced Tuesday it has closed on a $9 million Series A funding round led by Framework Venture Partners with participation from Microsoft venture capital fund M12, Rosecliff Ventures, Elevate Ventures, AngelList Quant Fund, Gaingels and Mama Ventures.
This round also included previous investors Ubiquity Ventures and Venture 53, which led Paxafe’s seed round in 2022. The company has raised $14 million since its founding in 2018.
Paxafe plans to use the funding to continue developing its core product, risk management platform Contxt, expand globally, build on its strategic partnerships and expand its sales teams to keep up with the 330% revenue growth it says it has experienced over the past 12 months.
Related: Risk management platform Paxafe closes investment with strategic industry insiders
“In an industry saturated with companies claiming [generative pre-trained transformer] GPT capabilities, PAXAFE is the only commercially available AI-powered risk provider in cold chain logistics. … Knowing exact arrival times and being able to act before disaster strikes are key for supply chain resiliency,” said Peter Misek, managing partner at Framework Venture Partners, in a news release.
Paxafe’s Contxt leverages Amazon’s Athena large-language models, introduced in 2016, to analyze supply chain data. This enables Paxafe to provide proactive suggestions aimed at cutting costs, minimizing product waste and enhancing efficiency in cold chain networks using large quantities of freight data.
| Funding details | Paxafe |
|---|---|
| Funding amount | $9 million |
| Funding round | Series A |
| Lead investor | Framework Venture Partners |
| Secondary investors | M12, Rosecliff Ventures, Elevate Ventures, AngelList Quant Fund, Gaingels, Mama Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures and Venture 53 |
| Business goals for the round | Enhance platform, grow sales teams globally and grow key partnerships |
| Total funding | $14 million |
| Post-valuation | $42 million |
In 2023, Paxafe forged strategic alliances with logistics providers and tech solutions to enhance their capabilities.
In October, it joined forces with Transposafe, specializing in safety and security in the supply chain. This integration facilitated real-time updates and actionable insights for shipments at risk.
Similarly, Paxafe collaborated with Carrier, a cold chain logistics expert, in September. Together, they aimed to pinpoint system failure points within shippers’ supply chains and predict failures to prevent product loss.
Related: Paxafe partners with Carrier to improve Lynx offering
“For the past decade, we’ve witnessed the industry adopt [internet of things] sensors as a means for addressing mission critical issues such as on-time, in-full product deliveries. Yet, real-time sensor data is useless without contextual analysis and prescriptive, recommended action. On behalf of the entire PAXAFE team, we’d like to thank our investors for their continued support as we expand our footprint, enhance our platform and build partnerships that reshape the industry,” said co-founder and CEO Ilya Preston.
C.H. Robinson leveraging AI tools to answer email requests for quotes
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VC watcher
Just tell us the total revenue. Sheesh. Revenue going from $30 to $99 is 330% growth. Not exactly impressive unless the revenue actually went from $3m to $10m.
And why give up the majority of your company to VC’s so early? They’ll have nothing left at all by the time this story ends and the VC’s own close to 100%.