Did the 2021 Supply Chain VC Boom Lead to Lasting Change?
- Feb 12, 2025
- 2 min read
The supply chain industry enjoyed unprecedented press coverage the past four years amid the panicked buying, factory shutdowns, and other general disruptions of the COVID-era. Everyday consumers were made aware of the incredibly complex ecosystem that supports modern miracles like Amazon same-day delivery, and along with that learned how strategies such as just-in-time (JIT) production and offshoring meant the system was highly susceptible to shocks.
With the disruption came an opportunity for change, so founders and venture capital investment arrived to help. Startups raised nearly £38B in capital across 835 deals in 2021, a 66% increase in funding compared to 2020. These deals spanned sub-verticals including last-mile delivery, enterprise supply chain management, warehousing tech, and freight tech. But soon after the boom in funding, supply chain venture capital, in line with the rest of the venture capital industry, experienced a sharp decline in 2022 and subsequently 2023. And now we’re left with the question, what came of all that funding in 2021? Did the global supply chain become any more resilient or efficient because of these investments? Perhaps most importantly, what’s next for the industry?
![Venture Capital Funding and Deal Count for Supply Chain Tech [1]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6cad3a_3a2301b9a4df46da8a86289a3d3c572b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_755,h_348,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/6cad3a_3a2301b9a4df46da8a86289a3d3c572b~mv2.png)
These are challenging questions to answer, but a great place to start are the annual reports of some of the supply chain giants. In A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s 2023 report, the carrier notes that, “…the vulnerabilities that triggered disruptions during the pandemic years still linger in global supply chains...” [2] Hapag-Lloyd, another of the world’s largest carriers by container volume, acknowledges these volatilities not only linger but are likely to continue long into the future. [3] Lastly, consulting firm Kearney, in their 2024 State of Logistics report, identifies the downstream effect of these disruptions, which is that both shippers and carriers are still redesigning their supply networks to drive out unnecessary costs and provide stability for future disruptions. [4]
There were some notable companies that were funded to address and minimize the impact of these disruptions during the venture capital boom. Flexport, Project44, and Forto, three unicorns, all provided some form of supply chain digitization to help shippers, forwarders, and carriers manage their logistics more efficiently. But these solutions really allowed companies to more efficiently react to challenges, rather than providing a proactive way to get ahead of future disruptions. This is where future supply chain startups may thrive, finding a way to alert companies to issues and providing early solutions. Leveraging AI and Machine Learning technologies, these startups can find creative ways to interpret the data around us and extrapolate what the next shutdown may be, allowing supply chains enough time to adapt before it’s too late.
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