由前亚马逊运营主管领导的供应链初创公司Auger融资5000万美元并赢得大客户

内容总结:
前亚马逊高管创办的供应链AI公司Auger获5000万美元B轮融资
尽管今年春季投资者普遍担忧Anthropic和OpenAI等公司推出的人工智能前沿模型将颠覆整个软件行业,但前亚马逊高管戴夫·克拉克(Dave Clark)却成功为其创立的供应链技术初创公司Auger完成了一轮融资——这类企业级软件恰恰是被认为将被AI模型所取代的领域。
这家总部位于华盛顿州贝尔维尤的初创公司,由克拉克创立,专注于供应链技术。公司近日宣布完成5000万美元B轮融资,由Eclipse领投,现有投资者Oak HC/FT跟投。至此,Auger累计融资额达1.5亿美元,员工规模已增至约130人。其客户包括Meta的虚拟现实与增强现实部门、体育商品巨头Fanatics以及消费品制造商金佰利(Kimberly-Clark)。
克拉克认为,通用型AI虽能生成洞察,却难以处理供应链运营这类高度专业的领域。大公司规模的财务与运营决策及执行,需要建立在深厚的供应链专长之上——这即是Auger所称的“本体论”(ontology),本质上是一张供应链实际运作的详细图谱。
“过去十年间,许多纯技术公司在供应链领域折戟沉沙,”克拉克在接受采访时表示,“你必须真正理解其中的复杂性和具体情境要求。”
Auger系统立于企业现有的ERP、仓库管理、运输管理和需求预测工具之上,将数据统一整合至单一运营层。它并非要取代这些系统,而是将其连接起来,利用AI智能体与传统优化模型自动做出决策并尽可能执行。例如,在贝尔维尤办公室的演示中,当供应商缺货无法兑现交付承诺时,Auger能识别短缺情况、确定客户优先级、重新分配库存,并将更新后的计划推送回企业现有系统。
克拉克指出,大多数供应链软件只会在问题发生时发出警报、等待人工处理,而Auger旨在自主完成常规决策,仅将异常情况标记出来供人工复核。“我们不只是一个工具,”他说,“我们更像是企业的新员工。”
在体育商品公司Fanatics的应用中,约85%的供应链流程决策已由Auger系统自主完成,目标是在近期将这一比例提升至95%左右。除已公布的客户外,另有8到10家公司正在与Auger进行合同谈判或试点。
克拉克在亚马逊工作23年,曾领导全球运营及全球消费者业务。他于2022年离职并出任货运代理初创公司Flexport的CEO,但因公司动荡任职不到一年。2024年,他与妻子莉·安妮·克拉克(Leigh Anne Clark)共同创立Auger,后者担任公司时尚与美妆部门联合创始人兼总裁,专注于克拉克所称“除生鲜外最浪费的供应链领域”。
为利用西雅图地区的人才资源,克拉克从得克萨斯州搬回本地,并在此前从Oak HC/FT获得了1亿美元A轮融资。公司快速组建了以亚马逊高管为主、兼有强生、微软和Salesforce等公司背景的领导团队,覆盖供应链运营、AI、数据科学和产品开发等领域。
今年3月,Auger被微软指定为Microsoft Fabric数据平台的首选供应链合作伙伴。其产品构建于Azure之上,微软销售人员可从Auger交易中获取佣金。克拉克表示这一合作已带来业务机会,但仍处于早期阶段。
克拉克透露,公司在资金尚未紧张时便提前启动B轮融资,以避免在预期的秋季客户密集上线期间因募资而分心。本轮融资后,Eclipse合伙人吉滕·贝尔(Jiten Behl)加入Auger董事会,其他董事包括克拉克、总裁兼首席财务官亚历克斯·塞巴洛斯(Alex Ceballos)以及Oak HC/FT的马特·斯特赖斯菲尔德(Matt Streisfeld)。
Auger尚未披露营收等财务数据,但克拉克表示本轮估值约为A轮的两倍。“我们没追求那种离谱的高估值,”他说,“定在了一个让我们感到舒服的位置。”
这种务实作风也体现在公司运营中。在贝尔维尤,Auger租用了微软退租后的办公空间,保留了微软留下的桌椅、显示器和椅子,几乎零成本完成了办公室布置。但克拉克对公司的雄心毫不低调:Auger的目标是到2030年让美国一半的GDP通过其平台流转,营收突破10亿美元。“要达到这一点,需要非常陡峭的增长曲线,”他说,“我们可不是在玩小的。”
中文翻译:
今年春天,当投资者们还在担忧Anthropic和OpenAI等公司开发的尖端AI模型会吞噬软件行业时,戴夫·克拉克(Dave Clark)却正在为一款恰恰是这些模型据称将要取代的企业级软件完成一轮融资。
Auger是一家供应链技术初创公司,由这位前亚马逊高管在华盛顿州贝尔维尤创立,现已获得5000万美元的B轮融资。本轮融资由Eclipse领投,现有投资者Oak HC/FT也参与其中。
此轮融资使该公司的总融资额达到1.5亿美元。公司已发展到约130名员工,其客户包括Meta的虚拟现实和增强现实部门、体育商品巨头Fanatics以及消费品制造商金佰利(Kimberly-Clark)。
克拉克的观点是,通用型AI可以产生洞见,但无法处理像运营供应链这样高度专业化的领域。要在大公司的规模上做出财务和运营决策并执行,需要基于深厚供应链专业知识构建的系统——这就是Auger所称的“本体论”,本质上是一张关于供应链实际运作方式的详细地图。
“过去十年,许多纯科技公司都倒在了供应链这座山上,”身为公司CEO的克拉克在本周的一次采访中表示,“你真的需要理解其中的复杂性和上下文要求。”
Auger建立在公司现有系统之上——包括ERP、仓库管理、运输管理和需求规划工具——并将数据统一到一个单一的操作层中。它并非取代这些系统,而是将它们连接起来,使用AI代理和传统优化模型,尽可能地自主决策并自动执行。
例如,在公司贝尔维尤办公室最近的一次演示中,克拉克展示了该系统将如何处理供应商在库存不足时未能履行交货承诺的情况。Auger会识别出短缺,确定哪些客户应获得优先考虑,重新分配库存,并将更新后的计划推回公司现有系统。
克拉克表示,大多数供应链软件只会生成警报,然后等待人工操作。而Auger旨在自主做出常规决策,并将异常情况标记出来供人工审核。
“我们不只是一个工具,”他说,“我们实际上是新员工。”
在体育商品公司Fanatics,克拉克表示,在Auger管理流程中,大约85%的决策是自主完成的,目标是很快达到95%左右。除了目前已公布的客户外,克拉克还表示,另有8到10家公司正在进行合同谈判或试点项目。
克拉克在亚马逊工作了23年,一路晋升至全球运营主管,后来又领导了全球消费者业务。他于2022年离职,成为货运代理初创公司Flexport的CEO,但在该公司动荡时期,他的任期不到一年就结束了。
他于2024年与一支团队共同创立了Auger,团队成员包括他的妻子 Leigh Anne Clark,她担任公司时尚与美容部门的联合创始人兼总裁,专注于克拉克所描述的除生鲜食品外浪费最严重的供应链之一。
克拉克从德克萨斯州搬回西雅图地区,以利用该地区的人才资源,并从Oak HC/FT获得了1亿美元的A轮融资。公司迅速组建了一个高管团队,成员主要来自亚马逊的高级管理层,以及强生、微软和Salesforce的领导者,涵盖供应链运营、AI、数据科学和产品开发等领域。
今年3月,Auger被指定为科技巨头微软数据平台Microsoft Fabric的优质供应链合作伙伴。Auger的产品构建在Azure之上,微软的销售代表可以从Auger的交易中获得佣金。克拉克表示,这种合作关系已经产生了互动,但仍处于早期阶段。
克拉克表示,Auger在公司实际需要资金之前就启动了B轮融资,以避免在他预计将非常忙碌的秋季客户入职期间因融资而分心。
借助本轮投资,Eclipse合伙人Jiten Behl加入了Auger董事会。董事会其他成员包括克拉克、总裁兼首席财务官Alex Ceballos以及Oak HC/FT的Matt Streisfeld。
Auger尚未披露收入或其他财务指标,但克拉克表示,公司估值大约是Auger初始轮次设定水平的两倍。“我们没有追求那种疯狂的天文数字估值,”他说,“我们定在一个自己感觉非常舒服的位置。”
这种务实的态度也体现在Auger的运营方式上。在贝尔维尤,公司目前在微软搬离后转租的办公室里办公。Auger保留了这家科技巨头留下的办公桌、显示器和椅子,几乎没花什么钱就布置好了新办公室。
但克拉克对公司的雄心却一点也不小。他表示,Auger的目标是到2030年,让美国一半的GDP通过其平台流转,收入超过10亿美元。
“要达到这个目标,需要一条非常陡峭的增长曲线,”他说,“我们不是小打小闹。”
英文来源:
While investors spent much of the spring concerned that frontier AI models from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI would consume the software industry, Dave Clark was closing a funding round for exactly the kind of enterprise software those models are supposedly going to replace.
Auger, the supply chain technology startup founded in Bellevue, Wash., by the former Amazon executive, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Eclipse, with existing investor Oak HC/FT also participating in the new round.
The round brings total funding to $150 million for the company, which has grown to about 130 employees and counts Meta’s virtual and augmented reality division, sports merchandise giant Fanatics, and consumer products maker Kimberly-Clark among its customers.
Clark’s view is that general-purpose AI can generate insights but can’t handle deeply specialized domains like running a supply chain. Making financial and operational decisions and executing them at the scale of big companies requires systems built on strong supply chain expertise — what Auger calls its ontology, essentially a detailed map of how supply chains actually work.
“Many a pure technology company died on the hill of supply chain over the last decade,” said Clark, the company’s CEO, in an interview this week. “You really need to understand the complexity and the contextual requirements.”
Auger sits on top of a company’s existing systems — ERP, warehouse management, transportation management, and demand planning tools — and unifies the data into a single operating layer. Rather than replacing those systems, it connects them, using AI agents and traditional optimization models to make decisions and execute them automatically, as much as possible.
For example, in a recent demo at the company’s Bellevue office, Clark showed how the system would handle a supplier missing a delivery commitment when there isn’t enough product to go around. Auger identifies the shortfall, determines which customers get priority, reallocates inventory, and pushes the updated plan back to the company’s existing systems.
Most supply chain software, Clark said, generates alerts and waits for a person to act. Auger is designed to make routine decisions on its own and flag the exceptions for human review.
“We’re not really a tool,” he said. “We’re really the new employee.”
At Fanatics, the sports merchandise company, Clark said about 85% of decisions in the process Auger manages are happening autonomously, with a goal of reaching the mid-90s soon. In addition to the customers it has named so far, Clark said another eight to 10 companies are in contract negotiations or pilot programs.
Clark spent 23 years at Amazon, rising to lead the company’s worldwide operations and later its worldwide consumer business. He left in 2022 and became CEO of Flexport, the freight forwarding startup, but that tenure lasted less than a year amid a turbulent period for the company.
He launched Auger in 2024 with a team that includes Leigh Anne Clark, his wife, who serves as co-founder and president of the company’s fashion and beauty division, focused on an industry Clark describes as one of the most wasteful supply chains outside of groceries.
Clark moved back to the Seattle area from Texas to tap the region’s talent pool, and raised a $100 million Series A from Oak HC/FT. The company quickly assembled a C-suite drawn heavily from Amazon’s senior ranks, along with leaders from Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, and Salesforce, spanning supply chain operations, AI, data science, and product development.
In March, Auger was named a premier supply chain partner on Microsoft Fabric, the tech giant’s data platform. Auger’s product is built on Azure, and Microsoft sales reps can earn commission on Auger deals. Clark said the partnership has generated engagement but is still early.
Clark said Auger went out for the Series B early, before the company needed it, to avoid the distraction of fundraising during what he expects to be a busy fall of customer onboarding.
With the investment, Eclipse partner Jiten Behl joined the Auger board, which also includes Clark, president and CFO Alex Ceballos, and Oak HC/FT’s Matt Streisfeld.
Auger hasn’t disclosed revenue or other financial metrics, but Clark said the valuation was roughly double the level set by Auger’s initial round. “We didn’t shoot for the crazy astronomical valuation,” he said. “We sat at a place that we felt really comfortable with.”
That pragmatic approach extends to how Auger operates. In Bellevue, the company works out of an office it subleased after Microsoft vacated the space. Auger kept the desks, monitors, and chairs the tech giant left behind, furnishing its new offices for next to nothing.
But Clark’s ambitions for the company are anything but modest. He said Auger’s goal is to have half of U.S. GDP flowing through its platform by 2030, with revenue exceeding $1 billion.
“That requires a pretty steep curve to get there,” he said. “We’re not playing small.”
文章标题:由前亚马逊运营主管领导的供应链初创公司Auger融资5000万美元并赢得大客户
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