Innovator Summit - A Wrap!
Breakdown from Year 2 & Signup for 2024
The week before Thanksgiving, the NAW and Applico co-hosted the Innovators Summit in Austin for our second year in a row. It was truly a phenomenal opportunity to meet and hear from many of the brightest minds in the distribution technology space. Enjoy this week’s newsletter as we revisit the event and sign-up now for next year’s September 25-27, 2024 in Austin!*
*attendance is reserved for decision makers at large distributors.
Event Highlights and Format:
The format of the event is a hybrid of a YC demo day + investors conference. The best of both worlds!
Tech innovators present, in a closed door fashion, to distribution executives with no other tech companies in the audience. Then, distributors can leverage the conference’s scheduling service to setup private, 1:1 meetings to meet with the tech startups.
This year’s conference had over 150 private 1:1 meetings scheduled! A 50% increase over last year!
Here are the 16 tech innovators who joined us.
Technology Innovators:
Bar Geron, Co-Founder & CEO
Brief description: Online payment processor for B2B Marketplaces and Distributors
Key customers: fiverr, Office Depot, Global Industrial
Founded: 2020
Raised to date: $437M, including $300M of debt
Investors: Lightspeed, Gramercy, HubSpot, Y Combinator
Brief description: Unify order logistics across platforms & automate last-mile fulfillment
Key customers: Fedex Freight, Autozone, Philips, Wegmans, SuperMax
Founded: 2013
Raised to date: $186M
Investors: Insight partners, Salesforce Ventures
John McNeill, CEO
Brief description: Automated Sales Order Entry to a distributor’s ERP.
Key customers: Sonepar, Graybar, Werner Electric, Van Meter
Founded: 1995
Raised to date: $160M - Private Equity owned
Investors: Warburg Pincus, Luminate Capital, Iconiq
Matthew Lafferty, Co-Founder & CEO
Brief description: Last mile logistics network serving construction, field service, solar, & auto industries.
Key customers: Ferguson, Winsupply, Graybar, The Tile Shop, Grainger
Founded: 2018
Raised to date: $50M
Investors: Bessemer, Initialized Capital, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Rainfall Ventures
John Moss, CEO
Brief description: Optimal pricing federation software for sales management
Key customers: Wesco, SiteOne, ANB Canada, Opici Family, EuroVintage
Founded: 1987
Raised to date: Private Equity owned
Investors: Advent Partners
*John flew in from Australia!
Niels Stenfeldt, CEO
Brief description: One of the leading PIM (product information management) system
Key customers: SRS, Specialty Building Products
Founded: 2007
Raised to date: Private Equity Owned
*Niels flew in from Sweden!
Tony Zakula, CEO
Brief description: Kodaris is a customizable ecommerce platform built for large scale distributors
Key customers: GMS, HD Supply, Enovy
Founded: 2014
Raised to date: Bootstrapped
Matt McKinney, Co-Founder & CEO
Brief description: Developer of a freight audit & bill pay platform using modern AI. Automate the invoice-to-payment cycle.
Key customers: GAF Materials, Loadsmart, Great Dane, Lawson
Founded: 2021
Raised to date: $65M
Investors: JP Morgan, Index Ventures, 8VC, 9Yards
Brief description: Enterprise SaaS solution to manage marketplaces and third party vendors
Key customers: UNFI, Cheney Brothers, Parts Town, Conrad Electronic
Founded: 2011
Raised to date: $963M
Investors: Bain Capital, Silver Lake, L Capital
Niklas Halusa, Founder & CEO
Brief description: Platform that enables B2B businesses to set up their own marketplace
Key customers: Auto Hauler Exchange, Koru
Founded: 2020
Raised to date: $32M
Investors: Drive Capital, Accomplice, and Golden Ventures
Lisa Catania, Co-Founder & EVP
Brief description: SaaS OMS (order management system) for final mile delivery
Key customers: Lowe's, Tractor Supply, PepsiCo, Advance Auto Parts, ATD
Founded: 2018
Raised to date: $64M
Investors: American Tire Distributors, Piva Capital, Trimble Ventures
Jack Carrere, Co-Founder & CEO
Brief description: Messaging platform for distributors’ front-of counter
Key customers: Ferguson, Johnstone Supply, ABC
Founded: 2016
Raised to date: $9M
Investors: Ironspring, Benson Capital, Callais Capital, S3 Ventures
Benj Cohen, Founder & CEO
Brief description: AI-powered CRM for distributors
Key customers: R.S Hughes, Purity Life, BencoDental, MSC
Founded: 2018
Raised to date: $20M
Investors: Felicis, Battery Ventures, MSC Industrial Supply, Abstract Ventures
Sam Oshay, Founder and CEO
Brief description: Automate and optimize distributor purchasing, payments and sales functions with direct ERP integrations into Epicor, SAP and NetSuite
Key customers: Larson, Hoffmeyer
Founded: 2018
Raised to date: $25M
Investors: Bessemer, Y Combinator
Ajay Kamble, CEO
Brief description: Sales order entry automation
Key customers: DITRA
Founded: 2022
Raised to date: Seed funded
Brief description: Friendly B2B marketplace for distribution
Founded: 2011
Investors: Subsidiary of Grainger
Survey Results:
We surveyed the attendees and asked their opinion on a wide range of subjects, ranging from technology spend to AI. For the size and scope of these companies, general opinion would assume meaningful spend on technology. One interesting takeaway was the number of individuals representing billion dollar market value businesses and their technology integration challenges.