Supply chain intelligence startup Lyric is ready to expand after closing on a $43.5 million Series B round of funding today.

The round was led by Insight Partners, one of the world’s most prominent software startup investors, and saw participation from others including Primary Venture Partners, Permanent Capital Ventures, VMG Partners, PSP Growth and NewBuild Venture Capital.

The startup, officially known as ChainBrain Inc., is the creator of an artificial intelligence platform that’s designed to enhance supply chain operations, such as management and forecasting, through advanced modeling and analytics. The platform can help companies optimize inventory management and transportation logistics and increase the efficiency of their supply chains.

Lyric says there’s big demand for such an offering, because supply chain teams are finding themselves under increased pressure to optimize their companies’ logistics operations, yet they’re forced to do so with outdated legacy tools that cannot keep up.

The startup cites a recent study by Gartner Inc., which found that many businesses struggle with activities associated with data, including preparation, transformation, model development and pattern identification, because of a lack of augmentation and automation capabilities.

“While demands for more analytics-enabled and near-real-time decision making are high, the technical hurdles and data quality concerns limit adoption,” Gartner said.

Lyric says it’s using highly optimized AI algorithms to get to grips with logistics problems. Its flagship offering is Lyric Studio, which is said to be a composable platform that enables companies to customize decision-making intelligence to meet the specific needs of their business. The platform boasts seamless integration with data platforms, an intuitive workflow builder for supply chain operations, a rich library of AI algorithms and an integrated “experience layer” that enables teams to access advanced data science capabilities, even if they possess limited data skills themselves.

Lyric Studio makes it possible to extensively model, plan and operate supply chains, with machine learning- and mathematical-based optimization. The platform has been engineered to handle large volumes of data, ensuring teams have all the information they need to
to generate actionable insights and make better-informed decisions regarding their supply chains.

The company says it’s enjoying strong momentum, with revenue growing more than 500% since it launched around 18 months ago. It claims to have secured multiple Fortune 500 customers across a wide range of industries, including the food and beverages multinational Mondelēz International Inc.

“We chose Lyric as our next-generation supply chain design platform after thorough assessment of multiple considerations, said Natesh Rao, head of supply chain operations at Mondelēz. “Within a brief period, we are already expanding our capabilities into many unique use cases with the speed and agility to meet our strategic objectives.”

Lyric said it will use the capital from today’s round to accelerate its product roadmap and expand its library of reusable supply chain logic, while enhancing its AI-based automation, experimentation and simulation tools. It’s also going to expand its customer success and onboarding teams, as part of an effort to scale its platform further.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Ganesh Ramakrishna said the latest funding round is a “signal” that underscores how supply chains are too complex and volatile for static software platforms. “Leaders need platforms that adapt to them, not the other way around,” he said.

Insight Partners Managing Director Teddie Wardi said he’s backing Lyric because the supply chain industry is long overdue a transformation. “Lyric’s platform-first approach delivers the flexibility and intelligence companies have been seeking for years,” he added.

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