Investing in Evos: Scaling Human Judgment in Logistics

The logistics industry is a fascinating space. Today, we can track thousands of trucks moving across the country in real time. We know exactly when they're going to arrive, and can keep tabs on thousands of shipments a day, all through sophisticated software. Yet at the same time, it’s incredibly people-driven. The most important decisions that make the industry run are based on knowledge from inside people’s heads, built up over years of experience, with nuances that are almost impossible to put into words, let alone software.

That’s why we’re excited to announce our investment in Evos, which has emerged from stealth with $9 million in pre-seed funding, co-led by Uncork Capital and Field Ventures, with participation from Crosslink Capital, Utopia Capital Management, Sandwith Ventures, and several other angel investors.

Evos builds autonomous AI operators that learn how a company runs, pick up on the nuances of how its people make decisions, and put that judgment to work around the clock. Businesses can take on more work without having to change the way they operate.

Why existing software only goes so far

For decades, most software in logistics has been built to help businesses track and manage their operations. We've gotten very good at knowing where things are, what's been shipped, and what needs attention. Obviously this is the top priority. But after that, there are still hundreds of decisions a day that still fall on people, and there's only so much time to make them. Even with better software, logistics companies struggle to grow without adding more work to their already stretched teams.

And often those aren’t straightforward decisions. What happens when the carrier you count on falls through? How do you handle a difficult customer? What do you do when a driver is running late? Every logistics business has its own way of dealing with these situations, often based on years of experience and relationships that are difficult to capture in software.

This is where traditional automation has struggled. We’ve built software to follow a defined process, but the moment something unexpected happens, someone still has to step in and figure out what to do.

What makes Evos different

When I first got to know Evos’ founder and CEO, Urav, what struck me was how deeply he understood this problem. He literally spent his childhood seeing the reality of these businesses first hand (his family ran manufacturing and logistics businesses). But even with that background, he went out and interviewed 100 business owners before starting Evos to really understand their situation. 

And you can see that experience in their approach. Rather than asking businesses to follow a predefined process, Evos learns how their people already work and builds AI operators that can apply that judgment across the business, giving teams more capacity without changing how they operate.

The process is surprisingly simple. A company can sign up for Evos on its own, without needing an engineering team or consultant. From there, an AI agent walks the team through how their business operates, learning the processes they follow and the decisions they make, including the little exceptions and preferences that aren't written down anywhere.

Evos then uses that information to build an operator for a specific function, whether that's communicating with drivers and brokers, auditing freight bills, or handling other day-to-day operations. At first, it works alongside employees, suggesting actions they can approve or correct. As it learns, it gradually takes on more responsibility until it can handle the work autonomously.

The initial setup can happen in as little as 24 hours. That's pretty remarkable when you consider that these are businesses that historically needed months of implementation, expensive consultants to adopt new software. Now a logistics owner can get sophisticated AI technology working inside the systems they already use, without having to become a technology expert.

Early results are impressive

Evos crossed $1 million in annual recurring revenue just four weeks after launching. And customers are already finding more parts of their businesses where they want to use it.

One freight brokerage has used Evos to audit nearly 3,500 carrier invoices in the last two months. While employees should perform these audits regularly, these types of tedious and repetitive tasks are often overlooked despite costing the industry tens of millions of dollars a year. Evos isn't daunted by the mundane. Instead of spot checking the odd invoice, Evos will audit every single invoice, capturing significant additional revenue that was historically lost to inattention. Great businesses are built around attention to detail. Evos allows customers to give attention to every detail. 

For an industry that's historically been slow to adopt new software, these are incredibly encouraging signs. We could not be more excited to partner with Urav and his team. Even at just 23 years old, Urav is one of the most impressive founders I’ve met. His understanding of the industry, technical ability, and sheer speed of execution are remarkable. He's built a company with the kind of early traction you'd expect to see much later, and he's done it in a matter of months. 

Congratulations to Urav and the entire team!