Desteia, a New York-based company with operations in the US and Mexico, utilizes technology to support leaders and operators, giving them the tools to make optimal decisions for their supply chain in a context of continuous disruptions. And the company has secured $8 million in a seed funding round led by Autotech Ventures, Nazca, and Village Global, positioning the company to revolutionize logistics operations with new artificial intelligence tools and graph theory. The funding round, which brings Desteia’s total funding to $11.5 million, included participation from Foundamental, Bridge Latam, and Nido Ventures.
This additional funding will enable Desteia to focus on U.S.-Mexico trade, where companies move over hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods annually. And working with customers worldwide, Desteia will provide better visibility to their operations and suggest the most efficient decisions to operators.
Desteia, which was founded by former Tesla executive Françoise Lavertu and Stanford engineers and entrepreneurs Diego Solorzano and Austin Poore, simplifies logistics by using AI to extract and organize information from unstructured data like emails, messages, and logistics documents.
It connects these pieces using graph theory, the mathematical study of networks comprising nodes (locations) and edges (routes). This creates a clear dashboard for operators to manage shipments across ocean, ground, and air with specific expertise on U.S.-Mexico cross-border operations. This includes integrations to Mexico’s customs system to give further visibility to port or border shipments.
Desteia’s goal is to become the decision-making tool for supply chain operators. And with minimal integration effort, the dashboard data provides actionable insights for logistics teams to securely access real-time updates on container ETAs, predict potential disruptions, and identify opportunities for optimization, such as the best carriers or most efficient routes.
At the same time, managing logistics involves manually handling thousands of emails and hundreds of documents monthly for many operators. And one Desteia client reported managing 10,500 emails and 600 logistics documents each month, while other clients registered dozens of manual errors they had to fix to avoid fines. Desteia helps companies with the problems by automating data organization and analysis, allowing operators to focus on decision-making and strategic planning.
Desteia has partnerships and contracts with major retailers, auto manufacturers, and CPGs in North America. Across the board, it has helped users like Elektra (one of the largest retailers in Latin America) achieve full visibility without any integrations required or manual work while considerably reducing the time spent reviewing emails.
KEY QUOTES:
“As we evaluate hundreds of supply chain tech solutions yearly, Desteia stood out with its unique approach to extracting unstructured data, which truly feels like magic. Unfortunately, traditional communication channels such as email and text are not going away, but recent advances in AI make it possible to meet customers where they are.”
– Burak Cendek, partner at Autotech Ventures
“Decision-makers have access to many think tank risk reports but lack the tools to incorporate them into their specific supply chain decisions. We have developed a practical platform that helps them solve this.” Adding that she’s faced those same challenges in her career as an operator and “never found solutions that were so easy to implement for a large organization.”
– Françoise Lavertu
“Supply chain managers need oversight of the chain from one end to the other to anticipate delays and disruptions before they happen and have a negative impact. Disruptions are so common. In fact, it is estimated that companies lose between 3-5% of revenues from them.”
– Diego Solorzano
“Relying on manual processes and fragmented communication systems means supply chains are fragile and prone to disruption. Desteia offers an exciting opportunity to streamline supply chains by harnessing the power of data.”
– Adam Zobler, general partner at Foundamental
“The founders are passionate, experienced and inherently familiar with the problems they are tackling. We look forward to working with Diego, Austin, and Françoise to further develop the product and scale this technology to revolutionize global supply chain management.”
– Hector Sepulveda of Nazca
