Tailor, a San Francisco and Tokyo-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, has raised $22 million in the Series A funding round. Investors include Anri, Jic Venture Growth Investments (Jic VGI), New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Spiral Capital and Y Combinator.
ERP systems usually come with a single interface that includes all the necessary features, but this is inflexible and allows you to limit customization options. In contrast, the “headless” ERP system separates the frontend (user interface) from the backend (ERP Core) to Taylor co-founder and CEO Yo Shibata. The backend manages key features of the ERP system, such as inventory management and accounting, allowing for independent selection or development of the frontend.
With this setup, Tailor's system Omakase allows AI agents to securely access ERP systems via APIs to automate tasks such as customer history summaries and workflow triggers.
There are many competitors in the industry, including huge legacy companies such as SAP and Oracle, and vertical SaaS tools such as craters and stitching. Shibata believes that Taylor's position as a “headless” and customizable option gives it a competitive advantage.
“As coding becomes more and more commoditized and AI agents handle more operational loads (already growing to 90% at around 50%). “We believe the future of ERP is modular, programmable and built for a world where humans and machines work together seamlessly.”
Tailor products, available in the US and Japan, are originally targeted at retail and e-commerce customers as these industries face specific challenges arising from dynamic supply chains, market expansion and uncertain geopolitical factors. Omakase automates workflows and manages the operations of companies, including inventory, fulfillment, finance, purchasing, and omnichannel management.
However, the company is currently receiving a large amount of inquiries from other sectors like B2B, and is expanding its services to non-e-commerce or retail companies, Shibuya said.
“B2B operations are much more complicated than B2C businesses because they are involved in managing future orders, advanced orders, and more, as well as stock sales,” Shibata said. “(They might want to personalize some of their product lineups, which adds to the operational aspects.”
Shimada, a former consultant and serial entrepreneur at McKinsey, and Hanadajima, CTO of Taylor, founded Taylor in 2021. The startup has grown from just 10 in 2022 to about 50 employees in Japan, the US and several other countries.
Regarding long-term planning, the CEO said: “As opposed to offering a rigid all-in-one suite, we offer a modular API-first platform that allows businesses to assemble and adapt to their exact needs, just as well as the way Shopify supports both pre-built storefronts and headless commerce. It's about giving teams the flexibility to scale and customize ERP around their own workflows and tools.”
The 4-year-old startup will allocate revenue to three key priorities: expansion in the US, product development and operation in Japan.
“We are accelerating the expansion of the US by building a dedicated to-market team and increasing our presence among mid-sized and corporate customers,” Shibata told TechCrunch. “Second, we have invested heavily in product development, particularly in expanding our ERP modules and AI capabilities. Third, we will continue to expand our business, which already has strong market traction, by expanding our distribution and customer success teams to support growth.”