Attention folks - if you want to spark innovation by transforming how your company buys stuff, this one's for you!
Thrilled to share that we've invested in Aron🔥
Founded by Dominic Toselli, Apple's former Head of Worldwide Logistics Procurement, Aron (formerly NegotiateAI) is the AI Chief of Staff for procurement teams. It just emerged from stealth with $8M backed by Menlo Ventures and Storm Ventures.
Dominic Toselli said "Aron is the last procurement head you'll ever need to hire." which struck me.
Honestly, we thought we might get turned down at first. But we kept making the case for what we could bring to the table, and eventually earned a seat at the table. We're grateful to be part of this journey as Japan Airlines Ventures, the Silicon Valley-based venture arm of Japan Airlines.
At an enterprise AI conference this week, panelists rated real-world agentic AI adoption in large companies at just 4 or 5 out of 10. Pilots and copilots are everywhere; agents that actually make decisions and get work done are rare. The reason is rarely the model. It's data quality, governance, and trust. One wrong character in a parts identifier can stop a production line, and the companies that get this right deploy agents internally first, earn their engineers' trust, and redesign workflows around agents rather than bolting agents onto existing processes.
That is exactly why Aron impressed us from day one. Rather than asking procurement teams to adopt yet another system, Aron adapts to how they already work: email, chat, shared folders, even the phone. It builds a knowledge graph across messy spend, contract, and project data, and then does the work: running RFQs, redlining contracts, checking invoices against contracted prices, chasing suppliers on open orders. Customers report ROI within the first month and expand from one category to many. It is one of the clearest examples we've seen of agentic AI delivering measurable value in a function that has been under-digitized for decades, built by a founder who lived the pain himself.
Huge respect for both lead investors. Menlo and Storm are exceptional not just in capability but in how they think about founders and partnership. Special thanks to Ryan Floyd.
If your procurement team is buried in RFQs, price negotiations, and contract renewals and you want to turn procurement from a defensive function into a strategic one, raise your hand. We'd love to connect you.
https://lnkd.in/g4bWGPfZ
Dominic Toselli - Let's gooooooooooo! So proud to pursue this journey with you/your team!
Special thanks to - Yosuke Suzuki Ao Kamio Masataka K. Ryoya Sugita Masato Kunezaki a.k.a Japan Airlines Ventures!!
2026.09
Shiro Matsuzaki
