OpEra

OpEra builds custom optimization software for physical operations such as logistics, agribusiness and industrial production. The company takes problems like delivery routing, scheduling and order allocation, writes a mathematical model for the decision, and runs it against the live state of the operation. When conditions change, an operator can add a constraint in plain language and the plan is recalculated. It is aimed at operations teams that still plan on spreadsheets. The engagement is run as a service rather than a self serve tool. In the first week OpEra learns the decision from interviews and sample data, in the second week it shows the gain on backtested results, and in the third week a proof of concept runs in the customer's real data environment, measured against what the team actually did. Weeks four to six put it live on the customer's own stack with a dashboard for operators, and the vendor then keeps monitoring and improving the model. Customers describe a problem through a submission form on the site. The site cites example results such as a 38 percent reduction in delivery cost for a pet retailer's routing, higher revenue and less idle time for a services marketplace, and added margin on a sugar producer's sales plan. The founders trained at MIT's Operations Research Center and the company is backed by Y Combinator. Pricing is not published, and engagements appear to be scoped individually.