In a move that signals the next phase of the artificial intelligence boom, Emanate, an AI startup focused on the gritty reality of America’s industrial supply chain, has emerged from stealth. Backed by venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and led by Gen Z standout Kiara Nirghin, the company aims to modernize the “physical economy” through the deployment of autonomous revenue agents.
Nirghin, who is also a Stanford AI researcher and former Grand Prize winner of the Google Science Fair, said she wants Emanate’s impact to go far beyond California. “So far, most AI benefits have gone to Silicon Valley. We’re bringing them to the industries that build America,” said Nirghin.
Emanate targets the industrial materials sector—a $5 trillion market comprising distributors, service centers, and suppliers. Despite being the backbone of the economy, this sector has historically lagged in digital adoption. Emanate’s thesis holds that these businesses are leaving billions on the table owing to reliance on manual processes. Because industrial distribution involves custom pricing, nonstandard specifications, and complex processing services, every revenue-generating operation typically requires human intervention.
The consequences of these legacy workflows are severe: Inbound demand via phone and email is often lost owing to slow response times, and pricing decisions are frequently made on gut instinct rather than data.
Emanate’s solution is a network of autonomous AI agents designed to handle these operations end-to-end. Unlike previous waves of enterprise AI that focused on chatbots or simple automation, Emanate’s agents are capable of converting inbound demand 24/7 across multiple channels, nurturing existing customer relationships, and intelligently researching new prospects by scouring web and industry databases at speeds human teams cannot match.
“These companies deserve the same AI superpowers that tech companies take for granted,” Nirghin said.
The startup differentiates itself from other AI entrants in the logistics space, such as HappyRobot, by focusing strictly on revenue generation. The company claims its product can increase customer revenue by 60% to 80%.
