Global importers are now at the front of AI investment. Nauta, an AI-powered logistics orchestration platform for importers, has raised $7 million in seed funding as it looks to simplify one of the most complex pieces of global trade. The round was led by Construct Capital with participation from Predictive. The new funding will support Nauta’s global expansion and help the company build out its sales and partnerships teams.
The New York-based startup, launched earlier this year, was co-founded by Valentina Jordan, who previously led product and engineering teams at Latin American logistics unicorn Rappi, and Rafael Santiago, who ran the Caribbean-based importing logistics company José Santiago before its acquisition by Performance Food Group.
Both founders bring direct experience in navigating the inefficiencies of global supply chains, issues they say Nauta is designed to fix.
Importers, despite handling trillions of dollars in goods annually, still depend heavily on emails, spreadsheets, and disconnected legacy systems to manage shipments. Nauta aims to replace those siloed processes with a single system of action.
By ingesting documents, tracking data, ERP inputs, and even email communications into a unified control layer, the platform automates workflows and gives operators real-time tools to respond to disruptions before they escalate.
“Nauta is built by and for operators,” said Valentina Jordan, CEO and co-founder of Nauta. “We truly understand the variability in their day-to-day work and are focused on helping them control the controllable. In logistics, every container tells its own story, but the systems involved rarely speak the same language. With AI, Nauta helps companies make faster, more proactive decisions about every shipment, reducing risk, improving cash flow, and growing margins.”
Since its launch in the first quarter of 2025, Nauta has already expanded into seven countries and counts importers of major global brands such as New Balance, Ashley Furniture HomeStore, L’Oréal, Modelo, and Moët & Chandon among its customers.
Early results show detention costs reduced by up to 80%, productivity gains of 30%, and container processing times improved by as much as 75%.
Construct Capital partner Camila Saruhashi, who led the round, said the timing is right for AI-native logistics solutions. “Supply chains don’t just move goods, they also move data and money. That complexity increases significantly with cross-border shipments, where every touchpoint adds layers of documentation, compliance, and coordination. With so many stakeholders and systems involved, Nauta’s AI platform is well-positioned to bring structure and visibility to this vital process, connecting the dots between every node, from manufacturers to ports to warehouses.”
The company’s pitch is finding traction at a time when trade uncertainty and geopolitical risk are forcing supply chains to rethink their footprints. According to the McKinsey article, Tech and regionalization bolster supply chains, but complacency looms; more than 70% of supply chain leaders reconfigured their global networks in the past year.
For importers, that creates added pressure to anticipate delays, avoid costly mistakes, and maintain margins despite volatile tariffs, shifting regulations, and inflation.
Santiago said those challenges are exactly what inspired Nauta’s development. “We built Nauta because we lived through the pain of fragmented information and manual workflows prone to costly mistakes,” he said. “Operators deserve modern AI tools that anticipate issues and enable action at the speed of trade.”
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