Avent

What do they actually do

Avent builds AI agents that handle repetitive inside‑sales work for industrial distributors. The software sits in front of existing channels (email, fax, text/phone) to parse RFQs and POs, match lines to the distributor’s catalog and pricing, prepare quotes, and, when a PO arrives, create the sales order and push it into the customer’s ERP. It can also route out‑of‑stock items to other distributors and include sourced options in the quote. This runs today with connectors to common ERPs (Epicor, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) and can be deployed in cloud, on‑prem, or hybrid setups depending on IT requirements Avent website.

The product is positioned as a back‑office/sales‑support tool rather than a full replacement for sales reps: it aims to offload routine quote and order‑entry tasks so humans can focus on relationships and exceptions Avent website YC launch page. Avent reports early pilots with industrial distributors in North America and the UK and claims it generates over $200,000 of quotes daily, though the company is very early (YC S25) and has not published broader customer counts or SLAs YC launch page.

A typical live workflow is: watch inbound channels → extract order lines and context → match to SKUs and price lists/contract pricing → generate a quote for human approval or automated send → on PO receipt, match to the quote and create the sales order in the ERP. If items are unavailable, the agent searches in‑network distributors and includes procurement options Avent website YC launch page.

Near‑term roadmap items include expanding channel coverage (especially voice/after‑hours), adding more ERP/catalog integrations, and packaging customizable workflows so distributors can keep pricing rules and approvals while delegating routine tasks. Longer term, Avent says it wants to network sourcing across multiple distributors to reduce lost orders Avent website YC launch page.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Inside sales rep / CSR at an industrial distributor: Spends hours manually parsing emails/faxes/calls, matching to SKUs and prices, building quotes, and re‑keying orders into the ERP—slowing response times and introducing errors or lost orders Avent website YC launch page.
• Head of inside sales / VP of sales: Needs to scale quoting and order handling without adding headcount; inconsistent quoting and slow turnaround hurt win rates and customer experience Avent website YC launch page.
• Operations / order‑entry manager: Faces backlogs and manual approval routing as POs and quotes pile up, causing data errors and margin leakage Avent website YC launch page.
• IT / ERP manager: Must integrate channel capture, catalogs, and pricing rules into Epicor/SAP/Oracle/Dynamics without disrupting production systems; custom connectors are time‑consuming and brittle Avent website.
• Procurement or sourcing lead at a distributor: Loses sales when items are out of stock; needs faster, auditable ways to find alternates and present sourced options to buyers Avent website YC launch page.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Hand‑run pilots via YC network and targeted distributors with heavy email/fax RFQs. Offer a 6–8 week white‑glove pilot (cloud or on‑prem) with an engineer mapping SKUs/pricing to quickly show time saved and error reduction Avent website YC launch page.
• First 50: Turn early wins into case studies and referrals; co‑sell with ERP integrators/VARs (Epicor/SAP/Oracle/Dynamics) using standardized connectors and playbooks to shorten sales cycles Avent website.
• First 100: Launch a partner/channel program and marketplace listings; productize onboarding templates for lower‑touch sales, and run targeted ABM/SDR into look‑alike distributor segments while promoting the cross‑distributor sourcing capability as a differentiator Avent website YC launch page.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Industrial distribution is a multi‑trillion‑dollar market in the U.S. alone (about $2.94T in 2024), and adjacent software segments that underpin Avent’s workflow—order‑to‑cash automation and intelligent document processing—are each multi‑billion markets globally (roughly $3.2B and $2.3–$3.0B in 2024) Precedence Research Dataintelo GMI Grand View Research.

Bottom-up calculation:

Focus on NA/UK mid‑market and enterprise distributors that handle RFQs/POs across MRO, electrical, hardware/plumbing, and machinery categories. Assuming ~12,000 target distributors (US industrial supply wholesalers include ~9,000 establishments; adding adjacent categories and Canada/UK increases the pool) with an average $75k annual contract for channel capture, quoting, and ERP order‑entry yields roughly a ~$900M TAM for Avent’s current scope First Research.

Assumptions:

• US industrial supply wholesalers (~9,000 establishments) are a proxy for one core segment; expanding to adjacent NAICS categories and Canada/UK brings the targetable base to ~12,000 organizations First Research.
• Average annual contract value at $75k reflects pilots expanding to multi‑channel, multi‑site deployments (document capture, quoting logic, ERP order‑entry).
• Avent’s near‑term focus is NA/UK; broader global expansion would increase TAM beyond this estimate.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Esker: Enterprise order‑to‑cash automation that captures orders, extracts PO/quote data, and posts into ERPs; overlaps on document capture and ERP integration for automating quote‑to‑order flows.
• Zilliant: CPQ and price optimization software for building accurate, approved quotes from ERP/price lists; competes on pricing/quoting logic but not full channel capture or order‑entry automation.
• SourceDay: Supplier collaboration and PO‑lifecycle automation; overlaps on PO matching and sourcing alternatives when stock is missing.
• UiPath (RPA + Document Understanding): General‑purpose RPA and IDP used to extract PO/RFQ data and automate ERP entry/approvals; customers can assemble components to replicate Avent’s flow but must build/configure themselves.
• ABBYY (Vantage / FlexiCapture): Intelligent document processing vendor with PO/invoice extraction and validation; overlaps with Avent on core PO/RFQ parsing used to drive quoting and order creation.