There’s a new operating system in town, and it’s not booting up your laptop; it’s rebooting the way global supply chains operate. Say hello to Elm AI (Formerly Esger), the Cornell-born spinout that just dropped a $2M oversubscribed seed round like it was nothing. But don’t get it twisted, this isn’t startup fluff. This is real AI, real compliance, and real traction, solving a trillion-dollar mess that most companies still treat with kid gloves and spreadsheets.
When most brands talk about sustainability, they mean recycled packaging and a nice page on their website. Elm AI went deeper. We're talking proprietary NLP models parsing supplier audits in under three minutes, AI-generated risk scoring so tight it makes the old ways look medieval, and dashboards that don't just visualize your supply chain, they interrogate it. Their tech’s compatible with RBA, SLCP, SMETA, BSCI, and WRAP frameworks. Translation? They didn’t just check the ESG box, they built a new one and patented the lid.
Let’s give a serious nod to the team turning compliance from a cost center into a competitive edge. Advait Raykar came out of Cornell Tech and previously ran the engineering game at Skit AI. Aparajita Thakker brought that Cornell MBA hustle and ops precision straight from the travel tech trenches. Eesha Khanna, the quiet assassin on sustainability, makes sure ethics aren’t just performative, they’re baked into the algorithm. Ken He is the technical backbone tying it all together, running point on integrations with major ERPs like a supply chain whisperer. Rounding it out, Mayank Arya, ex-Basis, CMU MS, leads AI with precision.
Elm didn’t get here alone. This $2M seed round came courtesy of sharp minds and smarter money. Beta Boom Fund and Working Capital Fund led the charge, backed by Boro Capital Partners, Very Serious Ventures, Gorges Ventures, The Bond Collective, and Textbook Ventures. First money in? Cornell grants and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA25). That’s a founder-first cap table, built on thesis-driven conviction, not check-the-box FOMO.
And performance? They're already processing data from thousands of factories worldwide, with clients that range from mid-size apparel brands to public giants. Flagship name? Reformation, the poster child for sustainable fashion. From there, Elm’s expanding into food, beverage, and electronics, building multilingual interfaces to serve suppliers across every timezone, every hemisphere. Next up: adding environmental compliance and locking in their place as the infrastructure layer of ethical commerce.
There’s a lesson in all this. You don’t have to wear Patagonia to build sustainability into your company. You just need the right system, and the right people building it. Elm AI isn’t talking about the future. They're operating in it.