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Brittany Ennix first became concerned in supply Chain as a child .
Her gramps worked for the Ford deoxyephedrine manufacturing plant , where she read he gave her an taste for the complexness of building something . When Ennix make a motion to Silicon Valley and worked for Uber and later Flexport , her fascination for the industry grew , until she had an musical theme for how to make the supply chains more effective for small and mid - sized business .
“ Most of us do n’t think about supplying chain on a day - to - twenty-four hour period basis , but they truly forge everything from what we can buy , where we can grease one’s palms it , where we know , at what price , which is obviously very top of mind in this saving , ” Ennix told TechCrunch .
Nearly three years ago , she set out working onPortex , a troupe that allows low - to - mid - sized clientele ( SMBs ) to join with freight partners and manage shipments and military operation in one place .
A lot of software package companies and inauguration already exist that aid companies manage their shipping needs , a category prognosticate Transport Management Systems ( TMS ) . But many of them are expensive and loaded with features smaller companies do n’t need , Ennix says . This even though SMBs are responsible for somewhere around one-half of “ the $ 4 trillion drop on freight every year , ” she said . She launch Portex to create a TMS that would appeal to the smaller companies that have n’t adopted such systems .
“ TMS is geared typically toward the biggest companies and has successfully help them unlock a lot of time savings and cost rescue and efficiencies in general , ” she continued . “ But for SMBs , the peter run to be too expensive , cumbersome and quite literally overkill . ”
SMBs that do n’t yet use a atomic number 69 tilt on manual procedure using emails , spreadsheet and PDFs . Portex hopes to provide a more effective management process to these SMBs — similar to how TMS works for larger companies . Ennix call up Portex more of an well-informed assistant political platform , where they can manage everything related to freight management in one lieu , allowing companies to easy communicate with carriers and factor through inst messaging . Portex can also be used to count up price quotes , secure private-enterprise pace and review automated analytics .
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On Thursday , the company announce a $ 6.25 million seed turn conduct by Footwork , with participation by Cowboy Ventures and Base 10 .
“ We ’ve seen companies that are using us cut down down over 25 hours a workweek on their manual freight job , along with being able to save up to 30 % or shave off 30 % of their annual freight spend , which can sometimes translate to millions of dollars , ” Ennix said .
Ennix said she had a reasonably smooth metre fund raise for her company , as she was able to exploit into the meshing she progress up from her years of “ grinding ” in tech . She run into her lead investor , Mike Smith , Colorado - founder and worldwide partner at Footwork , through another founder . Smith sat on this father ’s board and Ennix remembers her supporter used to talk about how unbelievable and attentive he was .
“ So when it was clock time to raise the seed , it was a no - brainer for me to go hardcore to pitch Mike , because , at that tip , he had come out his own fund . ”
“ Portex forthwith becomes a must - have tool for shipper who test it , ” Smith told TechCrunch . “ When I first meet Brittany , it was clear that she has the obsessive client direction to successfully shape a product that solves real , pressing needs for a large section that has long been overlooked by software detergent builder . ”
Portex will practice the fresh capital to help it hire and expand throughout the universe . Of course , there is also an drift to incline more into artificial intelligence and Ennix says with the rise dataset retrieved from all the bookings on Portex , the company hopes to apply AI to make automation smarter , so it can let in feature from conversational prompt to suggestions on which carriers to use .
She recall back often to her grandfather who , for four decades , worked at that chalk works in Nashville , teaching her how much intention move into a single component of a final merchandise . He would have her hole random object around the house and build up random things . She have sex she want to commence a company one sidereal day but did n’t know it would be in this space until she started working at the crossway of tech and logistics .
“ My granddad was a hero to me , and I wish to think that he would be proud if he picture what my squad and I have build today , ” she said . “ My visual sense for Portex is to become the intelligent management platform for every small - and - mid - sized caller that ’s move freight around the world . ”
This history was updated to reflect the right spelling of Brittany ’s name .
