BackOps, an AI-native operating system provider for supply chain operations, has raised $26M in Series A funding led by Theory Ventures. The platform, Relay, captures expert workflows to automate tasks across legacy systems, vendor portals, and communications, managing exceptions like claims and reshipments with human oversight. The capital will expand the AI-native OS for global supply chains.
Agentic AI Drives Supply Chain Investments
The raise aligns with exploding interest in agentic AI for operations, as predicted by SAP for 2026 trends. BackOps follows its own $6M seed from Construct Capital in June 2025 and $2M pre-seed from Gradient Ventures in 2024, reaching $34M total. Competitors like Altana ($322M raised) focus on visibility and risk, while ParkourSC ($65M) emphasizes orchestration; BackOps targets execution automation for messy real-world exceptions.
Over 10% Shipments Face Errors
More than 10% of high-volume shipments arrive damaged or incorrect, fueling manual exception handling in logistics. Enterprises in automotive, retail, and grocery struggle with fragmented systems, emails, and portals, costing hours daily amid labor shortages and disruptions. Current tools fall short on end-to-end automation across 40-60 step processes, leaving revenue on the table from unfiled claims.
Relay Records Expert Workflows
Relay learns from supply chain experts to automate operations, integrating with WMS, TMS, ERP, SAP, and Salesforce. It handles inquiries, reships, and claims autonomously where possible, with human-in-the-loop for complexity. Dock automates inboxes in Gmail, Slack, and Outlook, while AI Process Center optimizes institutional knowledge.
As Sean McCarthy, Co-Founder and CEO, shared:
"We are already saving frontline teams three to five hours daily. Our company now automates over 80% of inbound customer inquiries."
This agentic approach recovers millions in lost revenue, with customers including a top auto manufacturer and U.S. grocery chains achieving 100% eligible claims filed.
Theory Ventures Backs Execution Focus
Theory Ventures leads this round, signaling conviction in agentic AI for tactical ops amid incumbents' planning dominance. Prior backers Construct Capital and Gradient Ventures provide continuity from seed stages. The investor mix supports scaling sales and engineering for enterprise adoption.
AI Supply Chain Market Explodes
The AI in supply chain market stands at $13.81B in 2026, projected to reach $236.42B by 2035 at 37.29% CAGR per Precedence Research. Ovlo ($0.5M) offers no-code agents, but lacks BackOps' depth in legacy integrations. Trends like real-time disruption management drive capital into execution tools over visibility alone.
FAANG Founders Target Ops Chaos
Co-Founders Sean McCarthy (ex-Amazon Senior Technical BD Manager) and Henry Ou (ex-Apple Software Engineer, ByteDance ML Backend) bring complementary expertise. McCarthy's logistics sales experience pairs with Ou's AI infrastructure from large-scale systems. Their Big Tech pedigrees enabled Fortune-tier customers within two years of founding in 2024.
Post-Series A Hiring Accelerates
BackOps plans aggressive expansion via open engineering and sales roles, following recent hires from Microsoft and Align Technology. Product roadmap includes Relay 2.0 for enhanced visibility and events like Manifest Vegas 2026. With 8,650 hours saved for customers this year and 93% faster responses, the team eyes broader enterprise penetration.