Joseph Jacob, the co-founder and CEO of Burnt, is poised to shake up the food supply chain sector. Combined with the company’s cutting-edge technology, he is positioned to make a profound impact. Factoid Assembled since launching in January, Burnt has processed $10 million monthly in orders. This stellar performance is powering six-figure top-line revenue and displaying enviable MoM growth.
Jacob’s path to the food industry started at an early age, having grown up near industrial food factories. He relocated to India to pursue an equally thrilling professional venture. There, he got firsthand experience living and working on the factory floor of a shrimp processor in a rural farming belt. This is an experience that Jacob has always felt a strong connection to. His great-grandfather, meanwhile, had been the first person to export shrimp from India to the United States, breaking ground in the 1930s.
Burnt’s innovative approach is all about breaking through with software to food supply chains that are two decades or more behind the software adoption curve. While Jacob understands that the industry is at a crossroads, he knows there is a great deal of potential for expansion.
20 years of neglected software adoption is a huge opportunity. Investors that don’t know this don’t know how much can be massive if done properly,” Jacob said.
Before starting Burnt, Jacob cut his entrepreneurial teeth at Rekki, a Benchmark-backed B2B marketplace that linked restaurants to suppliers. His deep industry experience inspires his imagination. His own experiences make him uniquely qualified to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and productivity throughout our food supply chains.
Rhea Karimpanal, their Chief Product Officer, is joining Jacob at Burnt. She’s more than just a colleague—she’s Jacob’s childhood friend and his wife. Rhea comes from a multi-generational Indian American family that’s been in the restaurant business. This background provides her with a unique lens of understanding the challenges food service providers face.
Burnt’s flagship product—a virtual AI agent named Ozai—intelligently automates and manages the entire order-entry process. Jacob explains that Ozai can handle up to 80% of workflows that are currently trapped in outdated legacy systems, ultimately streamlining operations for businesses across the sector.
“Everyone we talk to calls their ERP a necessary evil,” Jacob remarked, highlighting the frustrations many companies face with existing systems. His vision for Burnt, though, is to stack AI agents on top of these systems, not to change or replace them completely. This strategy would help improve businesses’ efficiency with a relatively easy lift, not forcing them to start from scratch with all their current infrastructure.
As Burnt starts to grow beyond the DMV, it has caught the notice of heavy hitters in the food world. One of the U.K.’s largest food conglomerates is currently implementing Burnt’s system, signaling confidence in its potential to transform supply chain operations.
The company’s rapid growth trajectory and innovative solutions reflect a broader trend within the food industry toward increased automation and efficiency. Jacob’s fierce independence to tackle age-old supply chain inefficiencies makes Jacob and the team at Burnt food supply chains future-proofing professionals.