Consumer-focused deliveries have seen a revolution over the past few years, but change is coming more slowly to business-to-business logistics.
That’s the area Reefknot Investments is targeting with its $50 million fund, which was closed during the first quarter of last year. Reefknot is a Singapore-based 50:50 joint venture between state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings and transport and logistics firm Kuehne + Nagel.
The fund is focusing on Series A and B investments in startups with transformative technology for supply chains and logistics.
“We bucket it into three different areas: AI and deep tech, logistics and digitization, and trade finance,” said Marc Dragon, managing director at Reefknot Investments. “Some business model elements are also considered. It might not be a core AI company; it might be a startup that’s looking to disintermediate a certain part of the industry, but it might use some AI to support its business model.”
So far, Reefknot has clocked one investment, in Prowler.io, a UK-based artificial intelligence company targeting improved forecasting for the sector, including truck scheduling and pallet collection. “Their core is AI and deep tech around probabilistic modelling and reinforcement learning,” said Dragon.
The firm is currently talking to a slew of startups. “We are particularly looking at those with differentiated technology, especially if it’s scalable, preferably across a region or a certain type of market, or globally,” said Dragon.
Edited excerpts of an interview:
