- The pandemic directed investor attention to supply chains after massive disruptions.
- Startups with new ways of moving and tracking goods scored funding years earlier than planned.
- Supply chain disruption is expected to stick around, creating more runway for startups.
Depending on whom you ask, the pandemic accelerated e-commerce adoption by somewhere between three and 10 years. Naturally, venture capitalists followed the consumer demand. But, rather than just pouring cash into direct-to-consumer brands and online marketplaces, they went for logistics funding, flooding the startups building the infrastructure e-commerce needs to run.
The logistics funding wave comes alongside an increase in awareness of the workings of supply chains, which has only bolstered the investor community, said Victoria Sun, principal at logistics-focused VC Playground Global.
"People are talking more about supply chain now," Sun told Insider. "Suddenly they're realizing this is important to our day-to-day and how we get our toilet paper and food and groceries."
Up and down the supply chain, logistics startups landed millions in funding to advance their work: helping online retailers manage multiple package shipping companies, bolstering same-day delivery networks, streamlining how trucks are hired and ocean freight is tracked, and more.
The world woke up to supply chains in 2020 and that led investors to get busy in 2021. Here are some of those rounds and the technologies benefitting from the wave of recognition.
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