Invo

What do they actually do

Invo builds an AI assistant for food distributors and manufacturers that automates purchase-order intake, RFQ handling, and accounts-receivable/collections. It ingests emails, PDFs, and portal uploads, extracts and validates order data, and syncs structured records with existing ERPs and accounting systems (tryinvo.com; YC listing).

For RFQs it evaluates feasibility and suggests quotes; for POs it creates/updates orders in the ERP and tracks status. For overdue invoices, it automates reminders, multi‑channel follow‑ups, and escalations, while surfacing payment‑propensity signals so AR teams can prioritize manual outreach. The product is human‑in‑the‑loop and Invo supports integration work to fit a customer’s existing process (tryinvo.com).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Operations / Order Entry Manager at a food distributor: Receives POs and RFQs in many formats and spends hours re‑keying and fixing line items, which slows fulfillment and introduces errors (tryinvo.com).
• Credit & Accounts Receivable Manager at a distributor or manufacturer: Relies on manual reminders and guesswork to chase overdue invoices, making it hard to prioritize and delaying cash collection (tryinvo.com).
• Sales or Quoting Specialist responding to RFQs: Must manually check pricing, inventory, and margins to produce quotes, leading to slow responses and risky pricing decisions (tryinvo.com).
• IT / ERP Administrator at a distributor: Faces custom, brittle integrations to keep orders, invoices, and inventory synced across systems, increasing onboarding time and maintenance burden (tryinvo.com).
• Small distributor or manufacturing COO/owner: Pays for repetitive back‑office labor (order entry, collections, quotes) and needs to cut operating costs and errors without adding headcount (tryinvo.com).

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

• First 10: Run founder‑led, hands‑on pilots with local distributors and manufacturers, offering discounted/time‑limited trials in exchange for case studies and referrals; include white‑glove integration and training (tryinvo.com).
• First 50: Leverage early case studies and referrals to target similar regional distributors via outbound and niche trade associations; add a few ERP/integration and accounting partners; standardize a 2–4 week onboarding package to reduce bespoke work.
• First 100: Scale with inside sales for mid‑market accounts, self‑serve trials and prebuilt ERP connectors for smaller buyers, and targeted content/ads for Ops and AR managers; formalize partner programs with ERP vendors, brokers, and 3PLs while keeping a services option for complex deals.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Foodservice distributors generate about $382B in annual sales with ~17,100 distribution center locations in the U.S. (IFDA). Broader food wholesale and food & beverage manufacturing add roughly $1T+ in activity and ~58k manufacturing firms, defining a large pool of potential buyers (BVResources/First Research; VerticalIQ; TraceOne; BLS NAICS 311).

Bottom-up calculation:

Illustrative only: if Invo targets 5,000 mid‑market distributors/manufacturers with ERPs and high manual PO/AR workload at a $10,000/year ACV, TAM ≈ $50M/year. Alternatively, 20,000 targets at $5,000/year ACV implies ≈ $100M/year. Actual pricing and adoption will determine the realized TAM.

Assumptions:

• Focus on U.S. mid‑market firms with meaningful order and AR volume (subset of total establishments).
• Adoption limited to companies with an ERP and willingness to integrate.
• ACV in the mid‑four to low‑five figures given workflow scope and integration needs (pricing not publicly disclosed).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• SPS Commerce: Large EDI and order‑management provider for trading partner connectivity and compliance. Overlaps on PO intake/integrations, but focuses on EDI networks rather than AI-driven parsing, quoting, and collections (SPS Commerce).
• Rossum: AI document‑processing for extracting and matching data from invoices and POs. Overlaps on parsing/validation into ERP, but is centered on extraction rather than end‑to‑end quoting and collections for distributors (Rossum).
• Tesorio: AR/collections automation with payment predictions and dunning campaigns. Overlaps on automated reminders and prioritization, but focuses on AR forecasting and cash orchestration rather than PO/RFQ intake (Tesorio).
• Invoiced: Invoice‑to‑cash and AR automation platform for invoicing, reminders, payments, and reconciliation. Overlaps on collections automation, but not on distributor‑specific PO/RFQ workflows (Invoiced).
• Resolve (Resolve Pay): B2B payments and AR platform offering net‑terms underwriting, invoice advances, and collections. Overlaps on collections outreach, while also competing where buyers want embedded credit and funding (Resolve).