Orderful, an integration platform for electronic data interchange for the logistics and supply chain sectors, announced Wednesday that it has raised $15 million in a funding round led by NewRoad Capital Partners. This investment will support Orderful's goal of streamlining EDI integration and enhancing data connectivity across the industry.
New investors included 9Yards, Flume Ventures and NFI ventures, joined by existing backers Andreessen Horowitz and GLP Capital Partners. The company last raised funds in 2021, closing a $19 million Series B, raising $47 million to date.
Orderful aims to simplify how companies share data by providing a fast, reliable platform that minimizes the traditionally slow and complex nature of EDI.
EDI has long served as the backbone of data exchange between businesses. It allows companies to automate processes like purchase orders, invoices and shipment notifications, removing the need for manual entry and reducing errors. Traditional EDI, however, can be cumbersome, often requiring custom code, high fees and weeks of onboarding.
Orderful's solution relies on application programming interface integration, which is simpler and faster. APIs offer a direct line of communication between systems, enabling quick data exchanges without the need for customized connectors for each trading partner.
This API-based approach allows clients to integrate with their trading network through a single connection, reducing setup time from several weeks to less than two.
"From the beginning, we saw the potential in Orderful's vision to modernize EDI. Their progress has been incredible, and we're excited to see how they will continue to innovate and lead in this space," said David Ulevitch, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in the release.
Orderful is now using AI to simplify the error-prone aspects of EDI.
Erik Kiser, founder and CEO, explained how AI-based rules built into Orderful's platform tackle issues like data misalignment, helping users resolve complex data transformations almost instantly.
"A common use case would be if the partner requires [the term] CS for cases and the sender sends CA for a case," Kiser said in an email. "Orderful's API rules will automatically suggest the transformation from CA to CS. It also solves problems like date formatting, removing data that isn't required and moving data around to match the partner's requirements. Typically this takes hours to resolve for a particular partner. With AI rules, our customers solve these problems in seconds."