2025 Trends: Takeaways for Supply Chain & Logistics Founders 

By Stanton Green, senior director, and Jacob Katz, principal, at Blumberg Capital

 

Blumberg Capital has been committed to supporting the growth of innovative supply chain and logistics companies for decades, and the industry has already gathered at several events in the first few months of 2025. 

Last month, we spent time with the supply chain & logistics industry at Manifest. This year’s event, our fourth consecutive year attending, saw over 6,000 attendees, underscoring the importance and complexity of the supply chain sector. We also attended the BGSA Conference in Palm Beach in January, which is a highly-curated event with C-suite executives from the world’s major supply chain organizations.

From early-stage startups with one or two employees, to the world’s largest ocean carriers, mixed together with investors across stages, investment banks, consulting firms, and other industry players, these events create a rich environment of idea sharing and perspectives.

As early and growth-stage investors, we approach these events with five primary goals:

 

1. Engage with Early-Stage Startups

Throughout the year, we meet with hundreds of supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, and mobility companies, and these events provide an opportunity to meet many of them in the same location. This creates a fantastic venue for us to reconnect, catch up, and spend quality time getting to know the founders better and seeing them in the natural setting of selling and interacting with prospective customers. There are companies who we haven’t yet met or who are just launching and Manifest in particular creates a launching point for building relationships with those founders.

2. Learn from Later-Stage Companies

These industry conferences can be a productive opportunity to have candid conversations about the challenges and successes of later-stage companies, leading to refinement of our investment thesis and best practices that could be applied to our early-stage portfolio companies. 

3. Hear From Prospective Customers

Having direct conversations with potential customers is critical to understanding what’s truly driving demand. We met with customers of several of our portfolio companies, including NYSHEX, Overview, and Partful. Additionally, the growing conversation around electrification was highly relevant to our portfolio company, VerAI.  

4. Deepen Our Understanding of Industry Trends

We spent time learning and absorbing from the sessions and conversations to be better informed investors. As B2B software investors who have been investing in AI and advanced algorithms for decades, we were especially excited to see standing-room-only AI sessions at a supply chain conference, highlighting the shift toward data-driven operations across all parts of the ecosystem. 

5. Collaborate with Other Supply Chain & Logistics Investors

We regularly speak with our early and growth-stage investor partners. Conferences create an opportunity to connect in-person, compare notes on portfolio companies, discuss new deals and share views on trends that shape the supply chain landscape. 

 

Supply Chain & Logistics Industry Trends in 2025

 

At Manifest, CNBC’s David Siegal moderated a discussion between supply chain & logistics investors, including Stanton, as well as General Catalyst Partner Alexa Liautaud and Plug and Play Ventures Founder and CEO Saeed Amidi. The panel highlighted several trends in supply chain investing, including:

Supply Chain Technology Sector Poised For A Strong 2025

The supply chain markets will experience volatility as tariffs will create uncertainty in the short term. However, the pent-up demand for innovation and technology solutions should drive M&A activity. At the same time, reduction in regulatory oversight should help unlock IPOs and other exit opportunities. Investors see growing demand for innovative supply chain solutions, which will lead to more funding opportunities.

Hyperlocal and Resilient Manufacturing on the Rise

Geopolitical risks, tariffs, labor challenges, and supply chain disruptions are pushing companies to nearshore and invest in national resilience strategies. More businesses are shifting toward localized production to reduce global dependencies. These trends require software solutions to enable companies to do so efficiently.

Middle-Layer Connectivity Transforming Supply Chains

As supply chains continue to become more complex, new data connectivity layers are emerging that link together disparate systems in real time. These connectivity and data layers create significant opportunities to become a centralized “source of truth” and help to give customers across different parts of the supply chain a way to better manage different workflows.  

Shift from Full-Stack to Specific Use Cases

Investors are moving away from large, all-in-one supply chain platforms in favor of targeted, specialized technologies. It is hard to initially “boil the ocean” but wedge products can help land a solid toe-hold in an area. Enterprises prefer solutions that can be implemented quickly, with immediate ROI, rather than large-scale transformations.

AI and Automation Driving Efficiency

More advanced AI and small language models (SLMs) continue to present game-changers in freight forwarding, brokerage, and logistics optimization. AI-powered supply chain visibility is a major focus for improving real-time decision-making.

Expansion of Hardware and Software Integration

Investments are moving beyond software-only solutions to include tracking technologies, RFID, and AI-powered logistics monitoring. These hybrid solutions offer real-time visibility and better decision-making capabilities.

On another stage, Blumberg Capital Innovation Council member Jim McCullen, Chief Technology Officer at Century Supply Chain Solutions, spoke about digital transformation, particularly on traceability of container movements.

We’ll plan to dig into these themes further throughout the year.

 

 

Takeaways for Supply Chain & Logistics Founders in 2025

 

While these conferences provide a platform for investors to connect, they can be  equally valuable for founders. Here is some advice for founders navigating events throughout the year:

1. Come Prepared with a Plan

As these industry events continue to grow, it becomes increasingly challenging to stand out in the sea of attendees. The breadth of the event — both in terms of companies and conversations — is a double-edged sword. While it creates a ton of networking opportunities, it also means that time is limited, and your ability to connect effectively is critical. Many investors have their itineraries set a month before the event. Our advice? Do the work prior to arranging meetings and engaging with the people you want to meet.  Come in with a clear plan and stick to it.

2. Follow-Up is Crucial

With hundreds (if not thousands) of conversations happening simultaneously, standing out after conferences is all about the follow-up. Be personal, detailed, and prompt in your post-event communication. This is the best way to ensure that meaningful connections don’t get lost in the shuffle. 

Also, don’t worry if you didn’t have the chance to meet someone in person — don’t hesitate to reach out via email. Just be sure to be honest about your interactions (in other words, don’t make people think you saw them when in reality you didn’t).

3. Relationships Take Time

While conferences are fantastic for starting relationships with potential investors, it’s important to remember that it is a long journey. Even if you’re not actively raising capital, attending these events can help founders initiate relationships that will be valuable in the future.

4. AI is Captivating

AI is a complex topic. As investors who have been investing in AI for 25+ years (it wasn’t always called AI), we have seen this long journey. What we think of as second generation AI, tools like machine learning or natural language processing, has been used across the supply chain for years. The new buzzword is GenAI. And the question is how fast will GenAI find adopters.

This year, it has been impossible to ignore the magnetic pull of GenAI. Whether it was a panel discussion, a product demo, or just casual conversation, it was top of mind for everyone in the room. Companies leveraging generative AI, LLMs (large language models) or SLMs (small language models) were the most attended at Manifest’s Innovation Stage or BGSA’s always-exciting “Shark Tank,” and there was a palpable shift toward understanding how these technologies can enhance margins and operational efficiency. If you’re building a product in this space, the attention and excitement are undoubtedly in your favor…however, standing out is challenging, which creates confusion and indecision from buyers.  

Understand the industry, how the technology can be used, its adoptability and the tech knowledge of your audience. Speak the language of your customers! 

The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics

Both BGSA and Manifest served as reminders of the incredible potential in the supply chain sector. As investors, we left the events energized and better informed, with new ideas to apply to our portfolio and sharpen our investment thesis. But the real takeaway was the clear direction the industry is headed — continuing toward digital transformation and a rapid deployment of AI-powered solutions.

We are more excited than ever about the innovations on the horizon, and look forward to continuing our work alongside founders who are ready to disrupt the space.

To the founders building the future of the supply chain: keep innovating, stay connected, and, most importantly, keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible!