B2B sourcing innovator among the only 1.6% of all applicants so honored

SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, USA, July 18, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Plug and Play Tech Center, the world’s largest combined global technology innovation center and investor, has announced the selection of Crowdz, a San Jose-based B2B procurement innovator, as one of only 16 elite startups accepted into Plug and Play’s flagship class of participants in its recently launched Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation Platform.

The recognition follows immediately upon Crowdz’s selection this past March as one of 26 participants in Plug and Play’s just-completed Spring Retail & Brand Innovation Platform.

Revolutionizing a $1 Trillion Market:
Crowdz, co-founded and led by 20-year Cisco supply-chain veteran Payson E. Johnston, is pioneering the use of advanced product-search, dynamic-pricing, and artificial-intelligence capabilities to create the Internet’s first true B2B search and pricing engine—a specialty B2B sourcing system that will streamline B2B sourcing operations while giving business buyers their first online access to the 90% of the global B2B sourcing market that is not currently digitized.

Johnston, whose startup is initially targeting companies of all sizes in the United States and select global segments, explains that the need for this kind of solution is intense—and the resulting inefficiencies are enormous. Right now, he says, fully $19 Trillion of global B2B sourcing transactions cannot be conducted online, whether because product catalogs are not digitized or, even if digitized, because the sellers and their products are essentially invisible to conventional search engines.

“If Crowdz can help eliminate even a small percentage of these inefficiencies by revolutionizing an antiquated B2B sourcing system,” says Johnston, “that represents billions of dollars in value for businesses worldwide. We believe that this provides enormous growth opportunities for leading technology innovators like Crowdz.”

Three Powerful Benefits for Business:
Johnston points out that Crowdz’s proprietary, patent-pending B2B search and pricing engine offers businesses—buyers and sellers alike—four powerful operational advantages:

• Business buyers can easily and immediately find and compare exactly the products and suppliers they’re looking for, rather than having to scavenge through paper catalogs, make dozens of phone calls, or wait for days or weeks for responses from current online B2B sourcing portals.

• Sellers will show up in the search results every time a buyer searches for a product they sell—these sellers will no longer be invisible when buyers are searching for their products.

• And through Crowdz’s CrowdBuy dynamic-pricing engine—which aggregates all buyers’ purchase requests so that per-unit prices decrease as the number of buyers of individual products goes up—sellers will be able to sell more and buyers will be able to save more than they can with traditional business-sourcing methods.

• Crowdz pricing engine can also setup dynamic SMART Contracts across the Blockchain that automatically update pricing based on transaction volumes, enabling the future automation of the sourcing and purchasing process.

Ultimately, the Crowdz CEO says, Crowdz’s search-and-pricing system will integrate robust artificial-intelligence and machine-learning techniques that will create fully “self-executing business-sourcing systems.”

Plug and Play: the Ultimate Startup Platform:
Plug and Play is known as the “the ultimate startup platform”—and for good reason. Its track record of success includes such sector-leading tech innovators like PayPal and Dropbox.

Plug and Play’s Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation Platform, Plug and Play’s latest entry, is a 12-week program designed for early and growth-stage startups. Through tailored deal flow, themed workshops, and face-to-face interactions, it enables corporations to engage with startups that may complement their respective suite of offerings or create new potential revenue streams.

Differing from most other programs, the Supply Chain & Logistics focus will incorporate a medley of partners and startups from across a variety of industries given the need for supply-chain management and effective logistical operations in almost every type of business. This approach creates added benefits beyond standard startup scouting, as convergence of technology is often a trigger for success.

Startups accepted into the program potentially receive funding from Plug and Play Ventures, weekly mentor sessions with industry thought leaders, and opportunities for potential pilot projects, all culminating at Plug and Play’s quarterly demo day, EXPO. Maersk, the Danish transport, logistics, and energy conglomerate, and Ericsson, the Swedish networking and telecommunications giant, are the premier sponsors for the Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation Platform.

The current selection process for supply chain and logistics participants began in early Spring 2017, with more than 1,000 candidate companies vying for acceptance. Crowdz was one of just 16 participants eventually selected by a panel of experts from world-class supply-chain and logistics companies.


About Crowdz:
San Jose, Calif., based Crowdz, is building the world’s first artificial-intelligence-based B2B sourcing and supply-chain solution. Founded in 2014, Crowdz is headed by Payson Johnston, former B2B supply-chain senior manager for Cisco, and its executive team boasts more than 60 years of combined experience in B2B sourcing, supply chain, retail, and ecommerce. Crowdz’s technologies are currently covered by seven pending patents, and a prototype version of Crowdz’s sourcing system is currently being used by 230 seller companies offering 1.5 million products. For more details, please visit http://www.crowdz.io.

About Plug and Play Tech Center:
Plug and Play Tech Center is the world's largest global technology innovation platform and most active investor. Since inception in 2006, Plug and Play programs have expanded worldwide to include entrepreneurs from 24 countries, providing necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley. With more than 450 startups under the same roof and 176 corporate partners, Plug and Play has created the ultimate innovation ecosystem. Plug and Play provides active investments with 180 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and more than 600 networking events per year. Companies in the Plug and Play community have raised more than $4 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, PayPal, SoundHound, and Zoosk. For more information, please visit: http://plugandplaytechcenter.com/supply-chain.

Payson Johnston
Crowdz
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