San Francisco-based HappyRobot Inc., an artificial intelligence startup that automates communication tasks for supply chain operators, today announced it has raised $44 million to scale out its AI agent platform that it says will assist management for global trade.

Base10 Partners led the startup’s Series B funding round, with participation from existing investors including a16z, Array Ventures and YC. New investors include Samsara Ventures, Tokio Marine, WaVe-X and World Innovation Lab. The funds follow a $15.6 million Series A round raised by HappyRobot in late 2024, led by a16z, bringing the total venture capital for the company to $62 million.

Similar to many other companies looking to automate management operations, HappyRobot said it intends to provide agentic AI as “digital teammates” capable of handling tasks such as communicating over the phone, email and chat. They will also be able to read documents, browse websites and relay down time-critical information for human workers to act on.

“Most people don’t realize how much time and money are burned just coordinating operations and sharing information,” said Pablo Palafox, co-founder and chief executive of HappyRobot.

Examples where its AI agents have been deployed include helping supply chain businesses, such as freight operators and cargo carriers, automate responsibilities such as negotiating rates, booking appointments, collecting payments, recruiting staff and providing reports to upper management.

The platform’s “AI workers” can be as simple as agents that work through the monthly operations and generate insightful reports or as complex as checking up on worker status to fill out the daily routine.

For instance, an AI agent could spend part of a day reaching out to workers to confirm if they can attend work the following day or week, a tedious task for human employees. If the laborer says they can’t, then the system can contact current employees or even call contractors to find a replacement. All of this could be done behind the scenes with very little human oversight, while keeping worksite management informed along the way of the labor shortfall, contractor responses and who is going to fill in.

HappyRobot said its system is highly configurable and intuitive, allowing new AI agents to be generated with a prompt. The company’s AI builder permits operations teams, who are closest to the work and may not be savvy to software or AI development, to create and deploy their own AI teammates.

The company said its platform has already seen tremendous capability across over 70 enterprise supply chain customers, including the global package carriers and freight operators DHL Group, Ryder System Inc. and Werner Enterprises Inc.

According to HappyRobot, in the past 10 months, customers have reduced the time it takes to schedule appointments from over a week to about 30 minutes. Across sales, the company’s AI agents have provided a potential 19-times return on investment for outbound sales, with carrier sales operations gaining over five-times returns.

“Our goal is for an AI workforce to handle all that manual coordination and execution so people can focus on the strategic work, relationships and exceptions that really drive value,” Palafox added.

HappyRobot said it uses a specialized blend of large language models and agentic AI under the hood, designed to orchestrate supply chain operations. All of its AI backend is deeply refined with industry-specific knowledge and integrated with enterprise supply chain and office management software across every level.

With this new funding secured, the company plans to develop its global operations and hire additional talent to grow its team of 70 members. This expansion will focus on software engineering, on-site consultants and sales employees, primarily based in San Francisco and Madrid.

Images: HappyRobot