# Kimaru AI

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/kimaru-ai/ · added 2026-11-06 · updated 2026-11-06

**In short.** Kimaru AI (Decision-optimization software that compares production, purchasing and inventory choices for manufacturers and supply chains, United States): Paid manufacturing deployment, November 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 2 co-founders (Evan Burkosky, CEO; Hareesh Nambiar, CTO); later headcount not published, with work across Chennai, Tokyo, Austin and San Francisco. Launched September 2023; still running.

Decision-optimization software that compares production, purchasing and inventory choices for manufacturers and supply chains · United States · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · still running · group: Operations, logistics and trades

- Outcome: Paid manufacturing deployment, November 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: September 2023; months from launch to the outcome: 38
- Team: 2 co-founders (Evan Burkosky, CEO; Hareesh Nambiar, CTO); later headcount not published, with work across Chennai, Tokyo, Austin and San Francisco
- Outside funding: Equity accelerators Alchemist Japan and Alchemist Class 40; Alchemist lists a US$500K pre-seed, and the founder wrote of two more investments in October 2025
- Main factor: Two-founder enterprise sale through accelerators in Japan and the US
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Supply chain software

Links:

- Visit kimaru.ai: https://kimaru.ai/

**The product.** Software for manufacturers and supply-chain teams that handles one recurring decision at a time, such as which production plan to approve, whether to buy, wait or substitute a material, or where to send scarce stock. It combines data from the customer's ERP and spreadsheets with planners' corrections and business rules, uses a "Causal AI Modeler" to compare feasible choices, sends the choice to a named approver, records it, and measures the result. Sold to companies under order forms after a proof of concept; no prices are published.

**Why it worked.** The CEO led analytics and sales teams for enterprise software in Japan and Asia for about two decades, he said in an interview, and saw that ERP systems record what happened but do not say what to do next under current constraints, so planners decide in weekly spreadsheet cycles. The co-founders built a layer above the ERP that keeps the evidence, the options, the approval and the outcome of each decision together.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Kimaru AI sells decision intelligence software, a kind of software that models a business decision as actions, outside conditions and outcomes, compares options and tracks what happened after the choice. Its customers are manufacturers and supply-chain teams. The product sits above the ERP (enterprise resource planning, the system of record for orders, stock and production) and builds a Decision Model for one recurring choice, for example a weekly production plan. A causal AI model compares feasible plans, a named person approves one, and a Decision Receipt records what was known, chosen and expected.

Evan Burkosky (CEO) and Hareesh Nambiar (CTO) founded the company; they first worked together in Japan, the About page says. The site's first post is dated September 2023, and Kimaru AI, Inc. lists 15 November 2024 as its founding date. It went through the first Alchemist Japan class from October 2024 and Alchemist Class 40 in San Francisco, whose Demo Day was on 30 September 2025. Alchemist's Japan page lists a US$500K pre-seed and a paid manufacturing deployment for Kimaru.

No revenue figure was found, so the evidence grade is E. What is checked is the live product site, the two founders, the accelerator record, the license terms that sell the service under order forms with fees, and one anonymous customer case: an aircraft-carpet maker whose on-time production of new orders rose from 43% to 75%, as the vendor states.

## Pricing

Kimaru prices in November 2026: not published; the site offers "Book a Decision Walkthrough" and a proof of concept (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision Model deployment |  |  | price not published; proof of concept and order form |

The license terms say customers use the service "under an Order Form" and define "Fees" as the fees set out in it. No plan or price appears on any page read; the /pricing/ address returns an empty page. The table has one row.

## How much revenue does Kimaru AI make? The numbers, graded

A two-founder decision-optimization company for supply chains, with a site from September 2023, a US company founded in November 2024, two accelerators and a paid manufacturing deployment; no revenue figure published

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status, November 2026 | live, sold to companies through walkthroughs and proofs of concept | C | Home page: "Decision Optimization Platform." with "Book a Decision Walkthrough"; Class 40 post: "please signup for a proof of concept". | [1, 5] |
| Founders | Evan Burkosky (CEO) and Hareesh Nambiar (CTO) | C | About page: "Kimaru was founded together by Evan Burkosky and Hareesh Nambiar, who first worked together in Japan." | [2] |
| Company | Kimaru AI, Inc., founded 15 November 2024, Austin, Texas | C | About page: "Founded: November 15, 2024". The CEO says in an interview "In 2024 I co-founded and serve as CEO of Kimaru AI". | [2, 7] |
| First post on the site | 9 September 2023 | C | The site's post list gives 2023-09-09 for "How to Make Better Decisions", the earliest post. | [11] |
| Team | 2 co-founders; later headcount not published | C | Interview: "We operate asynchronous-first across Chennai, Tokyo, Austin, and San Francisco" and "Forward-deployed engineers build connectors". No page gives a headcount. | [2, 7] |
| Funding | US$500K pre-seed, as Alchemist lists it | C | Alchemist Japan page: "$500K pre-seed raised". About page: "Capital: $500,000". The founder wrote after Demo Day that the company "within 48 hours had closed two additional investments"; amounts not given. | [4, 2, 5] |
| Paid customer | a paid manufacturing deployment | C | Alchemist Japan page, portfolio highlights for Kimaru.ai: "Paid manufacturing deployment". The customer is not named. | [4] |
| Customer result claimed | new-order on-time production 43% to 75% | C | Home page case of an "Aircraft Carpet Manufacturer"; also "96% to 100%" ERP-versus-plan pass rate, weeks 24 to 26. The page adds: "Results are not universal." | [1, 3] |
| Accelerators | Alchemist Japan Class 1 (from 1 October 2024); Alchemist Class 40 (Demo Day 30 September 2025); INTLOOP Ventures Accelerator Excellence Award (October 2025) | C | Mitsubishi Estate press release reposted on the site lists kimaru.ai among nine startups; Class 40 post; INTLOOP post. | [6, 5, 8] |
| AI model provider | OpenAI, among listed sub-processors | C | Data Processing Agreement, Exhibit D: AWS, Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, "OpenAI – OpenAI, LLC" and HubSpot. | [10] |
| Time from the first post to the November 2026 facts | 38 months | calc | Calculated: September 2023 to November 2026. | [11, 4] |

How to read this table: a grade C value is what the company states on its own pages or what its accelerator lists. A "calc" value (grade X) was computed on this page. No value comes from a payment processor, a filing or an audited report.

## When did Kimaru AI launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From the first blog post in 2023 through two accelerators to a paid manufacturing deployment, read from the company's pages and the Alchemist Japan page. Each entry carries its grade.

- **9 September 2023** (grade C [11]): First post on kimaru.ai, "How to Make Better Decisions".
- **4 October 2024** (grade C [6]): Mitsubishi Estate announces the nine startups of the first Alchemist Japan class, including kimaru.ai; the class started on 1 October 2024.
- **15 November 2024** (grade C [2]): Founding date of Kimaru AI, Inc., as the About page lists it.
- **30 September 2025** (grade C [5]): Alchemist Class 40 Demo Day in San Francisco; the founder writes that two more investments closed within 48 hours.
- **October 2025** (grade C [8]): Graduates from the INTLOOP Ventures Accelerator in Japan with its Excellence Award, with plans for customer proofs of concept.
- **November 2026** (grade C [1, 4]): The site shows the aircraft-carpet case; Alchemist lists a paid manufacturing deployment.

## Why did Kimaru AI work?

### Two-founder enterprise sale through accelerators

Two founders, one for customers and one for the technology, used Alchemist Japan, Alchemist in San Francisco and a Japanese corporate accelerator to reach investors and enterprise pilots, the company's posts say.

### Start with one decision

A first deployment covers one recurring decision and can begin with files or read-only database views, without writing back to the customer's ERP, the home page says. This lowers the risk for the buyer before a larger order.

### A record of each decision

Each decision keeps its evidence, options, approver and measured outcome, so the vendor can show a before-and-after number, such as the on-time rate in the carpet case.

## How it was built

These details come from the company's pages. They are grade C.

- Sub-processors: Amazon Web Services, Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, OpenAI and HubSpot, the Data Processing Agreement lists.
- Deployment in a customer-managed AWS account, a private tenant run by Kimaru, or on premises, the home page says.
- The product passes approved actions to outside agents such as SAP Joule, Microsoft Copilot, Codex and Claude, the product page says.
- The team works asynchronously with Slack, Google Workspace, Asana and GitHub, the CEO said in an interview.

Sources: [10, 1, 3, 7]

## Who tried this before Kimaru AI, and why did they fail?

Three companies in a database of failed startups promised to make inventory, procurement or the supply chain of a whole industry easier to manage. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### TradeGecko (2012 to 2021; funding US$10.4M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Inventory and order management for small and medium online sellers.
- Why it died: After Intuit bought it, the focus moved to QuickBooks, and all-in-one commerce platforms covered the need.
- Record: 

### Kinnek (2012 to 2020; funding US$25M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: A marketplace that made procurement and supplier comparison easier for small businesses.
- Why it died: Amazon Business and Alibaba had larger supplier networks, and small buyers needed more tailored help than the platform gave.
- Record: 

### Katerra (2015 to 2022; funding US$2.6B; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: One company for design, supply chain and construction to cut building costs and time.
- Why it died: It built factories before it had secured customers, and the costs of factories and supply chains were higher than planned.
- Record: 

## What changed

TradeGecko and Kinnek sold general tools for many small businesses and lost to larger platforms. Katerra tried to own the whole supply chain and needed billions of dollars. Kimaru sells one decision at a time to an existing manufacturer and keeps the customer's ERP in place, so a pilot is small and its result can be measured.

Two things are newer: language models and agents can now read messy spreadsheet and ERP data and act in other systems, and accelerators in Japan and the US pair small B2B teams with corporate customers for proofs of concept.

## Can one person copy Kimaru AI now?

**Verdict: Hard for one person.**

Enterprise supply-chain software needs long sales cycles, data connectors for each customer and engineers on site, and Kimaru used two founders, two accelerators and outside funding. The part one person can copy is the scope: pick one recurring decision in one industry, prove a before-and-after number in a pilot, and only then widen.

1. Choose one recurring operating decision where errors have a measurable cost.
2. Start from read-only data exports so the customer's IT team does not have to approve write access.
3. Record each recommendation, the approver and the result, and publish the measured change.
4. Use accelerators with corporate partners to find the first pilot customers.

**What is still open.** Narrow versions for smaller manufacturers: one decision such as material reordering or machine scheduling, sold with a fixed monthly price instead of an enterprise order form.

## What could go wrong for Kimaru AI?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue figure for Kimaru was found. What was looked for: a payment-processor profile, a founder interview with numbers, a filing and press figures. Alchemist's page says there is a paid manufacturing deployment but gives no amount; the US$500K pre-seed is funding, not revenue. A reader could look for a named customer or revenue in later press.
- **Customer results are the vendor's pages.** The 43% to 75% on-time rate and the 96% to 100% ERP check come from an unnamed "Aircraft Carpet Manufacturer" on Kimaru's own site. In an interview the CEO describes Japanese retail and logistics results only within ranges that McKinsey reports, without own figures. Posts from early 2025 such as "Fashion Retailers Use Kimaru.ai" describe use cases and name no customer.
- **Dependence on model providers.** The Data Processing Agreement lists OpenAI as a sub-processor, with AWS and Microsoft Azure for hosting. The product page says outside models and agents (SAP Joule, Copilot, Codex, Claude) may assist, and that Kimaru keeps the decision record separate from them.
- **Competition.** The CEO names Aera and Blue Yonder as larger decision-intelligence and supply-chain vendors. On this site, LineSight (production planning for metal service centers) and Lark (purchasing and inventory agents for distributors) sell AI for similar operating decisions.
- **Team size.** Two co-founders started the company, and it raised outside funding. The CEO's interview mentions work across Chennai, Tokyo, Austin and San Francisco and forward-deployed engineers, but no page gives a headcount.

## Sources

1. Kimaru home page, read 6 November 2026 — https://kimaru.ai/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the product, the deployment options and the aircraft-carpet case.
2. Kimaru: About Us — https://kimaru.ai/about-us/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the co-founders, the founding date and the company details.
3. Kimaru: Product — https://kimaru.ai/product/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the Causal AI Modeler and the outside agents.
4. Alchemist Accelerator: Alchemist Japan — https://www.alchemist.vc/japan (grade C). Read the portfolio highlights and testimonials. The accelerator's own page about a company it invested in. Source for the pre-seed and the paid deployment.
5. Kimaru blog, 6 October 2025: Kimaru AI Graduates from Alchemist Class 40 — https://kimaru.ai/kimaru-ai-graduates-from-alchemist-class-40/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the Demo Day date and the two later investments.
6. Kimaru blog, 4 October 2024: Press release: kimaru.ai selected to join inaugural Alchemist Japan program (Mitsubishi Estate) — https://kimaru.ai/kimaru-ai-selected-to-join-inaugural-alchemist-japan-accelerator-program/ (grade C). Read in full. A Mitsubishi Estate press release reposted on the company's site. Source for the class and its dates.
7. Kimaru blog: IT Business Today - Interview with Evan Burkosky, CEO and Co-Founder @ kimaru.ai — https://kimaru.ai/it-business-today-interview-with-evan-burkosky-ceo-and-co-founder-kimaru-ai/ (grade C). Read in full. Reposted interview. Source for the founder's background, team locations, tools and competitors.
8. Kimaru blog, 3 October 2025: Kimaru AI graduates from the INTLOOP Ventures Accelerator with the Excellence Award — https://kimaru.ai/kimaru-graduates-from-the-intloop-ventures-accelerator-with-the-excellence-award/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the INTLOOP award.
9. Kimaru: License Agreement Terms, last updated 8 March 2025 — https://kimaru.ai/license-terms/ (grade C). Read the opening and definitions. Source for sales under order forms with fees.
10. Kimaru: Data Processing Agreement — https://kimaru.ai/data-processing-agreement/ (grade C). Read Exhibit D. Source for the sub-processors, including OpenAI.
11. Kimaru site post list (WordPress posts API) — https://kimaru.ai/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?per_page=100&_fields=id,date,link,title (grade C). Read in full. Source for the date of the first post.
12. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Kimaru AI? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Kimaru AI).