Dave Clark, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s consumer business, has raised $100 million in funding for a new supply chain software startup.
Auger Inc., as the company is called, disclosed the massive seed investment today. It detailed that venture capital firm Oak HC/FT led the raise.
Clark left Amazon in 2022 following a more than two-decade career at the online retail and cloud computing giant. He was most recently chief executive of the company’s consumer business, which includes its flagship e-commerce marketplace. Clark earlier played a key role in building the transportation network that underpins Amazon’s supply chain.
Between his stint at Amazon and the launch of Auger, Clark briefly held the top post at supply chain startup Flexport Inc. The latter company develops a widely used logistics management platform of the same name. It helps enterprises perform tasks such as booking space in delivery trucks for their merchandise.
Bellevue, Washington-based Auger also competes in the logistics software market. It’s developing a platform intended to help large enterprises manage their supply chains. The application will use artificial intelligence to automate some of the data management tasks involved in the process.
According to TechCrunch, one of the AI features that Auger plans to offer is an information retrieval chatbot. The tool will enable logistics teams to access data such as merchandise shipment records using natural language prompts.
One of the use cases that Auger plans to target with its platform is supply chain planning. That’s the task of determining the most efficient way to procure a given piece of merchandise and ship it to a company’s facilities. The process requires logistics teams to find a reliable supplier, identify the fastest delivery route and complete upwards of dozens of other steps.
Forecasting is another task that Auger hopes to ease. To reduce cost overruns, retailers use AI to estimate future customer demand and adjust the amount of merchandise they order accordingly. Furthermore, Auger’s platform will reportedly also streamline some of the financial tasks involved in managing merchandise shipments.
Currently, enterprises use upwards of a dozen different applications to perform the logistics chores that Auger seeks to ease. The company positions its platform as a simpler alternative to those tools. Augur reportedly hopes to provide a user experience akin to consumer-focused software products.
The company will use the proceeds from its seed round to support product development initiatives and hire more staffers. According to GeekWire, the investment may also finance acquisitions. Auger will explore opportunities to buy companies with technology that could help enhance its platform.