Cavela lands $6.6M to help brands beat pre-tariff manufacturing costs

When Anthony Sardain started building Cavela in 2023 — an AI startup focused on automating supplier sourcing — he didn’t anticipate that rising tariffs would push customers to look beyond China for manufacturing options.

“You don’t just walk into Vietnam and build up a supply chain,” Sardain told TechCrunch. “Most brands find one supplier and stay with them for life because they don’t want to risk losing that relationship.”

That challenge is especially pronounced for small and midsize businesses that lack global sourcing teams. Cavela aims to solve this by using AI agents that act like a whole procurement department. These agents can source products from manufacturers across more than 40 countries and negotiate pricing and specifications on behalf of the brand.

On Wednesday, Cavela announced a $6.6 million seed round, co-led by XYZ Venture Capital and Susa Ventures, with participation from Crossover Capital.

Supplier discovery has long been a slow, opaque process — and Sardain said automation wasn’t possible until generative AI arrived.

“Product development involves huge amounts of text, images, diagrams, sketches, and photos. This type of data wasn’t something technology could handle well before AI,” he explained.

Thanks to new LLM and image models, brands can upload all their product details — specifications, blueprints, and every relevant document — directly into Cavela’s system. The AI agent then analyses the information, identifies dozens of potential manufacturers, and immediately contacts them through WhatsApp, email, or SMS to gather lead times, production capabilities, and pricing.

The entire process takes place without the brand needing to send a single message.
“They come back a few days later and find quotes waiting in their inbox,” Sardain said. After that, companies request samples from shortlisted suppliers, helping them decide which factory to move forward with.

Cavela says its customers dramatically cut sourcing time and save an average of 35% on production costs.

“If you get 100 quotes, odds are you’ll find a significantly lower price — and probably a better supplier, too,” Sardain said.

The startup’s clients — including fire-resistant apparel maker Western Welder Outfitting and men’s grooming company The Longhairs — say Cavela has helped them secure manufacturers offering prices even lower than pre-tariff levels.

Sardain credits his background for Cavela’s approach. He’s a former data science lead at Tierra and comes from a family deeply rooted in global trade. He spent his childhood in Asian manufacturing hubs such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, and mainland China, giving him a rare, hands-on understanding of how factories operate.

Cavela’s competitors include giants like Alibaba, which connects businesses with thousands of Chinese manufacturers, and Pietra, a brand operations platform that assists with product sourcing using AI.