VCs Reveal 41 Top Supply Chain Startups Shaping the Future

• We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising supply-chain startups of 2022.
• VCs were asked to suggest startups in their portfolios and ones with which they had no relationship.
• Here are the outfits they named.

One question has wormed its way into nearly every  discussion of how the world has adapted to nearly three years of an ongoing pandemic: Is this the new normal? 

So the question stands for investor interest in supply-chain tech. Before the pandemic, venture capitalists showed little interest in the folks trying to revamp a logistics industry largely dependent on phone calls, faxes, emails, and bulletin boards. 

The supply-chain crisis that mimicked COVID-19’s spread around the globe changed that, of course. VC investments in supply-chain-tech startups skyrocketed from $8.3 billion across 780 deals in 2017 to $41.3 billion across 1,203 deals last year, according to PitchBook. Startups like Nuro, Aurora, Faire, and Deliverr each got hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel their new ways of making goods move. 

In the first quarter of this year, VC investment fell off 2021’s record pace, indicating that the wave has crested. Still, supply-chain-tech startups raised $14 billion between January and March across 301 deals — signaling that plenty of cash and interest remain. 

To identify the startups that deserve the most attention, we polled two dozen venture capitalists who cover the area, asking each to name two companies, at least one of which isn’t in their portfolio. 

Here’s what they said.