Anchr Inc., an AI-focused food distribution company, has announced a $5.8 million seed funding round. The current food supply chain, from restaurant orders to grocery shelves, relies on outdated systems like spreadsheets and manual processes. Anchr aims to introduce AI automation to manage billions in perishable inventory.
"We built Anchr to become the intelligent layer that works alongside teams every single day, automating away the tedious, unsexy parts of the job to create truly material value for a margin-strapped business," said co-founder and co-Chief Executive Tzar Taraporvala.
Distributors often use enterprise resource planning systems that track past transactions rather than predict future needs. Anchr's AI and machine learning algorithms are designed to optimize inventory and manage purchasing risk in real time. Co-founders Tzar Taraporvala and Smayan Mehr identified inefficiencies, such as manual order input at 3 a.m. and reliance on disconnected systems.
Early customers have reported significant improvements, including one sales team reclaiming 40% of daily working time and another poised to increase average order size by $65 per order. Co-founder and Co-CEO Smayan Mehra stated, "If the first era of enterprise software digitized record-keeping, we believe the next era will automate it. We call that shift Enterprise Resource Automation - and Anchr is building this inevitable operating layer."
Anchr plans to expand its automation across all distributor layers and aims to become a foundational AI solution for physical goods movement in fragmented supply chains.