Supply chain start-up in the spotlight: Wakeo

Wakeo was founded in Paris, France, in 2016 by Julien Cote (CEO) and Loïc Marzin (CTO), who met while previously working on supply chain optimization at PwC. The mission is to ‘turn the supply chain from reactive to predictive’, creating transparency and a better user experience using new and disruptive technologies.

To overcome the challenge of fragmented and heterogeneous data from so many different forwarders and carriers’ proprietary systems, the company has consolidated all transport providers into a single online software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. This has resulted in a digital transportation solution bringing real-time visibility of international multimodal (air, sea and road) freight flows for an agile supply chain.

Anticipating delays

The solution can accurately estimate the time of arrival thanks to machine learning and advanced in-house algorithms. The platform is also interoperable with all existing IT solutions (ERP, TMS, WMS, etc.). Hence, the tool helps shippers and forwarders to benefit from data science in anticipating delays in order to improve the customer experience and optimize operations.

Today, the Wakeo team comprises 15 people, including supply chain operational experts, key account managers from the transports & logistics industry and talented software engineering and machine learning specialists. The company already operates in 25 countries around the world, with further growth expected. Its target industries are automotive, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, luxury goods and materials, and its customer base includes Gefco, Air Liquide, Faurecia, Chryso and Emball’iso. Key partnerships include the TechStars accelerator programme in 2017 and the SAP.iO Foundry accelerator programme in Paris in 2018.

Wakeo King of Supply Chain Innovation

Since the start of this year, the company has won the 2019 King of Supply Chain Innovation award and the Jury Prize of the Semaine de l’Innovation Transport & Logistique (SITL) Start-up Contest, and was also one of the six finalists at the Agora Supply Chain Gala in April.