Witnessing the chaos that COVID-19 wrought on the global supply chain was what inspired Hanyin Chen to start ASKaFOX, an AI-powered SaaS tool to help industrial companies find suppliers.
“[For many], industrial sourcing is still very much a manual process, largely dependent on Google,” Hanyin notes. “And companies still tend to put all of their eggs in one basket when it comes to supply management.”
What companies needed, Hanyin realised, was a reputable and trusted tool to help them search for suppliers and a verified human way to audit each lead. That’s, essentially, how the Montreal-based startup was born in 2020.
“We cover [the] two major tasks within a sourcing mission,” notes Hanyin. “Supplier discovery via an AI-powered search tool, which taps into diverse data points; and [we] perform a supplier audit [with the help of] a global talent pool of freelance auditors [that we’ve] onboarded.”
Getting started is easy.
A customer can register as a buyer online in about 10 minutes. They’ll then be directed to the product and supplier search section of their profile where they can enter information about what they’re looking for.
ASKaFOX then provides a “long list” of potential suppliers, which the customer widdles down to a short list. From there, the tool will suggest auditors who can verify the generated info in person. Once all data is validated, the customer can move forward with a chosen supplier.
How, you may ask, does ASKaFOX retrieve raw data matching a customer’s query? In three ways: one, through open data (for example, by searching paid databases or consented screening from manufacturers’ websites); two, by scouring membership lists from the company’s partners; and three, through global trade transaction records.
“We find reliable and competent suppliers,” unlike others, notes Hanyin, something customers have come to appreciate and rely on them to do.
It’s because of their uniquely positioned place in the supply chain that ASKaFOX got connected to ventureLAB. The team was directed to the organization by mentors who said ventureLAB could help them expand their business model and marketing and communications plans.
“ventureLAB is a prestigious player in the world of enterprise software and AI,” says Hanyin, noting the time he’s spent as part of the current Accelerate AI cohort has been invaluable. The free, six-month program helps companies like ASKaFOX leverage AI to solve the modern challenges of the supply chain industry.
Hanyin says he feels ASKaFOX is now better positioned to grow and expand its model to include predicting the reliability of suppliers instead of just validating them - something no one is currently doing well.
“We love the people at ventureLAB,” he says, adding working with other entrepreneurs has helped him learn “you don’t know what you don’t know, but there’s always someone who knows, so ask.”
He’s also realized the value of his company and how it’s revolutionizing the way companies search for suppliers.
“I felt the absolute necessity to have a solution helping companies rebuild resilience to their supply chain,” says Hanyin. “We aim to provide the ultimate answer to the global supply chain crisis combining data efficiency and human insight… [we are helping customers] take back control, from the source.”
About Accelerate AI
Led by our seasoned expert Advisors and business leaders Garry Chan and Krishna Vempati, this free comprehensive 6-month program will propel Accelerate AI companies to solve the modern-day challenges of the supply chain industry by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning into their established product offerings. We are excited to watch the immense growth of these companies as they tackle some of the most challenging entrepreneurial hurdles in technology today.
About ventureLAB
ventureLAB is a leading global founder community for hardware technology and enterprise software companies in Canada. Located at the heart of Ontario’s innovation corridor in York Region, ventureLAB is part of one of the biggest and most diverse tech communities in Canada. Our initiatives focused on raising capital, talent retention, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition have enabled thousands of companies to create over 5,000 jobs and raise more than $340 million in investment capital. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada, for global markets.
