Optilogic is a company that provides a cloud-native supply chain design software platform. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Optilogic founder and CEO Don Hicks to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Don Hicks’ Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Hicks said:
“My passion for software development and applying scientific and engineering methods to complex supply chain problems has shaped much of my career and had a lasting impact on the software industry and global businesses alike.”
“Before Optilogic, I founded LLamasoft in 1998, a leading supply chain modeling, optimization, and analytics platform that was later acquired for $1.5 billion. I also led LLamasoft’s acquisition of Barloworld’s Supply Chain Software Division and IBM’s LogicTools business. In addition to supply chain, I’ve founded companies in biotech (DNA Software) and immersive 3D experiences (Saganworks). Earlier in my life, I graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served in the Army’s field artillery branch in Germany, earned an MBA from Univ of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.”
“At Optilogic, we’ve assembled the most experienced supply chain design team in the industry—we have numerous people who are known and trusted in this industry. Together, we’re solving for supply chains that are risk and service optimized, not just cost-efficient.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Hicks shared:
“Optilogic was founded to enable much needed innovation applying cutting edge OR engines to solve business problems. By building a new 100% cloud-based platform we solved the “development problem”, giving innovators access to development tools, engines, and resources to enable rapid experimentation. We also solved the “deployment problem” by provisioning easily accessible API wrappers around the custom engines, which enables developers to instantly deploy those capabilities to any client-facing front-end technology.”
“In June of 2022, we announced we would build a new application focused on the supply chain design space, and released the first version of Cosmic Frog six months later. We had been telling our platform users it was easy to develop new apps on top of our platform; the best way to underline the point was to do it ourselves.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Hicks reflected:
“The summer of 2022 was our Valley Forge. We had great people, but only a big pile of do it yourself components to assemble. We honestly didn’t know if we could make it work until September of 2022, just two months before we would commercially release it. To see our globally distributed engineering rally together and become one single unified high performance team was one of the most miraculous highlights of my career. With all its past success, LLamasoft never got it to work. Optilogic did, and customers are now benefiting every day.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Hicks explained:
“Our platform combines three integrated components that work seamlessly together: Cosmic Frog for enterprise supply chain optimization and real-time scenario modeling; DataStar for AI-powered data preparation, cleansing, and validation; and Custom Apps for personalized, role-based workflows. The platform is powered by breakthrough agentic AI throughout, uniquely integrating artificial intelligence, mathematical optimization, and digital twin simulation.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Hicks acknowledged:
“Even though it’s not a new concept, many companies are still unfamiliar with what supply chain design means today—especially the role of AI in transforming the design process. Many organizations are still relying on outdated infrastructure and manual modeling processes that take months. One of our biggest challenges is helping clients shift their mindset: from cost-minimization to designing for resilience, from 3-month modeling cycles to 1-day breakthroughs, and from design as a periodic exercise to design as a continuous strategic process.”
“We address this through thought leadership, sales engagements, proof-of-concept pilots, and delivering measurable ROI across key projects, including our work with General Motors and Sumitomo.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Hicks noted:
“In November 2022, we launched Cosmic Frog, the first 100% SaaS supply chain design platform. Since then, we’ve continued to evolve the platform with AI at the forefront, focusing our agentic AI on collapsing the modeling process from months to days. We’re responding to what customers need to deal with real-world disruption, from port closures to climate to geopolitical trade tensions. We’ve also redefined design from something that’s done occasionally by a few skilled analysts, to a powerful AI-powered optimization platform that enables companies to answer any supply chain question–for any user in the company.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Hicks cited:
“Since launching in 2022, Optilogic has achieved several major milestones that reflect both product innovation and market validation.”
“We introduced Cosmic Frog, the first cloud-native supply chain design platform, in 2022. Just a year later, our work was recognized with multiple honors, including a Silver Stevie® Award and a SaaS Award in 2023.”
“In 2024, we were named both a Top Tech Startup and a recipient of the Top Supply Chain Project designation, highlighting our growing impact across industries.”
“In 2025, we closed a $40 million Series B round led by NewRoad Capital to accelerate product development and expand our customer success capabilities. That same year, we launched the Lumina Tariff Optimizer, the industry’s first combined simulation and optimization engine for real-time tariff strategy modeling.”
“Throughout this journey, our technology has delivered tangible impact for customers. Clients like General Motors and Sumitomo Corporation of America have reported results including a 22% reduction in inventory costs and 95%+ reductions in model solve times—a testament to the speed, scale, and value our platform unlocks.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Hicks highlighted:
“One standout is our work with Sumitomo Corporation of America. They needed to reevaluate their inventory strategy across 26,000 SKUs. Using Cosmic Frog, we helped them simulate 2,500+ scenarios with AI-powered algorithms and reduce inventory costs by 22%. Time-to-insight dropped from 375 hours to just 15 hours.”
“Another case: General Motors used Cosmic Frog to analyze and optimize their global supply chain at the SKU level, with live collaboration and real-time results sharing across teams.”
Funding
When asking Hicks about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“We raised a $40M Series B in April 2025, led by NewRoad Capital Partners with participation from MK Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. This round is accelerating our development roadmap, expanding vertical-specific expertise, and supporting the launch of our new data enablement platform.”
“We have experienced very rapid sales growth since the initial Cosmic Frog launch and are in an extremely strong financial position, enabling us to serve our customers with industry best support for the long term.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Hicks assessed:
“The supply chain design and planning market is valued in the billions. Our platform serves midsize to enterprise-level companies across manufacturing and logistics services through retail and consumer goods.”
“Because Cosmic Frog is SaaS-based, we’re able to expand rapidly into new verticals and serve a broader range of functions across finance, ops, procurement, and logistics.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Hicks affirmed:
“I’ll give you several major differentiators:
AI-First, But Different: We’re focused on supply chain design decisions that AI cannot fully automate—complex, forward-looking transformations that require human imagination, strategic thinking, and accountability. Our agentic AI collapses modeling time from months to days, but keeps humans in control of the strategic decisions that matter most. When our AI generates models, you can validate and improve them with world-class design tools.
Triple-Threat Technology: We uniquely combine agentic AI, mathematical optimization, and digital twin simulation in one integrated platform. Others offer just AI or just optimization—we deliver the complete technology stack.
Try Before You Buy and Simple Pricing: Cosmic Frog is the only design solution you can try for free in minutes with a Personal Account. Our plans and pricing are easy to understand, unlike most software vendors.
Self-Service Optimization Apps: We’re the only platform that enables users to build their own apps (with as much or as little support as needed) to answer any supply chain question–for anyone across the enterprise.
Cloud-Native from Day One: Cosmic Frog was built on the cloud, not retrofitted. That means faster solve times, easy collaboration, and rapid engineering and deployment of innovative new features.
Solutions Partnership: We don’t just sell software—our Solutions team provides hands-on expertise from implementation through ongoing optimization. These are supply chain practitioners who’ve solved these problems themselves and work alongside your team to ensure success.
But the single biggest differentiator is our people. Optilogic has a culture that’s focused like a high-powered laser on serving our customers and solving their problems. That’s the secret sauce. Having the best technology in the world doesn’t help anyone without our amazing support team. Just ask our customers!”
Future Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Hicks emphasized:
“We’re focused on three priorities:
Launching DataStar, our new AI-powered product that makes it easy to build and collaborate on data workflows that are flexible, accessible, and repeatable.
Expanding our work in verticals such as CPG and retail with tailored use cases.
Growing our global footprint and customer base while maintaining the gold standard in customer support.
We also plan to keep evolving the Optilogic platform with new capabilities that make scenario planning more automated, collaborative, and predictive.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Hicks concluded:
“This is a time, and this industry is unlike any other I have experienced over the last 30 years. Yes, the global challenges are big, but change has always been the norm. What’s unprecedented is three things:
The tech has never been this powerful. You can spin up thousands of nodes, or dial up a machine that’s bigger than supercomputers were just 10 years ago—all by flipping a switch in the app. My iPad is now more powerful than our old computer cluster used to be, and there’s no software installs!
On the negative side, I have never seen such bad behavior by tech companies and the mediocre PE firms that back them. People lie, they cheat, they denigrate their employees, and then try to hurt them when they leave. It’s shameful. Some of these tech executives need to look themselves in the mirror and ask the question, ‘who do I want to be?’ At Optilogic we often say we must be proud of everything we do. We never give up on that.
And finally, AI is fundamentally changing our industry. The question everyone’s asking is: Will AI just replace all design and planning technologies? Will it replace the people who use those technologies?
We don’t think so. What we’ve learned is that AI excels at automating repetitive, data-rich decisions. But supply chain design involves forward-looking, strategic decisions that require human judgment—these are contracts between warring factions in your company where Sales wants availability, Finance wants lower inventory, and Operations wants stability. You need humans to negotiate those compromises.
AI is an incredibly important technology that makes everyone more productive. We’ve focused our AI on eliminating the tedious 80%—the data preparation and baseline modeling—so teams can focus on the strategic 20% that creates competitive advantage. AI enhances people; it doesn’t replace them. Values and culture will matter more than ever before.
There’s always a way to be of service to customers. You just have to be flexible and smart and practical about exactly how one does that.”
