Augment Makes a Splash in B2B Distribution
And, so does Amazon Supply Chain!
Hi everyone,
Happy Mother's Day to the women in our lives who make it all possible!
Last week sure was exciting! I appreciate all the kinds words of support – it means a lot.
We were lucky to catch the attention of a number of outlets – both at the national stage as well as freight and B2B distribution-specific outlets.
It’s an honor, after 10+ years in the distribution industry, to be in a position to directly solve many of the problems that have long plagued day-to-day operators. And, we’re hiring!
We’re building the largest AI team in B2B distribution and hiring across the board: engineering, product, customer success and growth. If you understand B2B distribution and are looking for something new, contact me! You can review the job listings here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/go-augment
Here are a few of the excerpts that stuck out to me from last week’s coverage:
Axios: “San Francisco-based Augment builds Al software that automates supply chain workflows across emails, calls and enterprise systems, from quote to fulfillment… “These complex industries with archaic, siloed systems become a multi-person sport,” Abbott says. “Multiple companies have to coordinate to get work done.”…’What becomes important is incredibly deep domain knowledge.” Abbott adds. “It would literally take us no less than a decade (to build internally, versus acquire].” Augment plans to pursue more buys, targeting early-stage Al startups across supply chain segments like freight forwarding.
Freightwaves: Augment’s platform, Augie, uses agentic AI to follow standard operating procedures written in natural language rather than custom code.
“Previously, light business rules and workflow customization was put into the ERP with a small army of engineers writing custom code,” Moazed said. “Now, the incremental cost of customizing workflow automation is headed towards zero because you are writing a process document in English and the AI agents are actioning the work alongside your human teammates.”
“Augie saves me 80% of the time spent on quoting. It’s as if I had my own personal assistant. It seamlessly integrates with workflows and automatically connects to my inbox and the ERP, with product search functionality that blows our ERP and website out of the water.”
— Mike Mackey, Commercial Services Manager at Ewing Outdoor Supply
Link: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/augment-acquires-merlin
NAW/MDM: “Distributors represent one of our most vital industries. Without them, hospitals run out of vital supplies, factories grind to a halt and home builders can’t build — yet they still run on legacy systems and spreadsheets. That changes now,” Augment Co-Founder and CEO Harish Abbott, said in a news release. “Alex and his team have harnessed AI to solve real business problems for distributors, and their product connects seamlessly with what Augie already does. Now Augie reaches further across the supply chain than ever before.”
DSG: Augment said Merlin has been collaborating with customers representing more than $20 billion in combined distributor revenue, including Ewing Outdoor Supply, Insco Distributing, Brooks Safety Solutions and Reece.
The combined platform is designed to manage the quote-to-cash process, including order entry from email, phone, text, PDF, supplier coordination; freight management; and access to internal product and operating data. Augment said customer data remains isolated within each company and is not used to train shared AI models.
“For the past decade, we’ve seen firsthand the challenges facing B2B distributors. AI is finally ready to solve them, but no provider was meeting the needs of enterprise wholesale distributors,” Moazed said.
Other articles:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/augment-acquires-merlin-tech
Amazon Supply Chain Launch Causes Freight Brokers
GXO Logistics (GXO) cratered ~16.5-18%, its worst day since listing as a public company. GXO is a pure-play contract logistics provider — warehouse management, fulfillment, distribution — which puts it squarely in the crosshairs of ASCS’s distribution and fulfillment capabilities. The fear is straightforward: why would a shipper pay GXO when Amazon can offer the same service plugged into a network with last-mile delivery built in?
UPS dropped ~10-10.5% and FedEx fell ~9.4%. These are the most obvious competitive targets. Amazon now has 80,000+ trailers, 24,000 intermodal containers, and 100 cargo aircraft. The parcel shipping piece — offering 2-to-5-day delivery, 7 days a week, with pickup from a business’s own warehouse — is a direct shot at UPS and FedEx’s core parcel business. FedEx’s timing is particularly bad given the planned June 1 spinoff of FedEx Freight.
C.H. Robinson (CHRW) fell ~6-10%. As the largest freight brokerage in the U.S., CHRW is threatened by Amazon’s ability to offer freight booking, customs clearance, and end-to-end visibility through a single platform — essentially disintermediating the broker.
