Today, a startup called 7bridges that is aiming to simplify that by way of an AI-based automation platform — it ingests a company’s supply chain, operating and logistics data to present a user with optimized recommendations for how to move goods — is announcing $17 million in new funding, a sign of the demand in the market to address and fix how supply chains work. At the same time, Covid-19 led to massive surges in demand for many businesses — most obviously in areas like e-commerce but also any business that found itself getting squeezed as a result of disruptions elsewhere (eg a pharmaceutical company seeing more orders for drugs in part because others are making less, or just because people became more anxious for their health).Typically a company might work with upwards of 30 different suppliers in the normal course of business, from those supplying components through to companies that might ship parts or all of your product around the world. Indeed, with AI and automation making their way into every aspect of how business gets done nowadays, it was a no-brainer that a company would come along to build a platform to bring all of this together. 7bridges have developed a novel technology solution to digitalise the design, management and optimization of supply chains. 7bridges will enable a wider range of businesses to better harness the power of data and AI to support commercial decision-making. We believe 7bridges has the potential to address a largely unmet market need and significantly improve companies’ supply chains.”