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Poka Labs

S24
3 people|Active|Hiring|Website
SaaSSupply ChainAIIndustrial
13°Moderate Pivot
Before

The modern operating system for chemical manufacturing.

After

The modern operating system for chemical manufacturing.

Full description — before

Poka Labs is developing an AI platform to automate operations tasks in chemical manufacturing, beginning with production scheduling. Traditionally, these tasks are performed manually using spreadsheets. Our software seamlessly integrates with existing data sources such as data historians, emails, and PDFs to automate analytics, scheduling, changes, and communication within a single platform. Malay and Andrew met while pursuing their MBAs at Harvard Business School. Malay previously worked as an engineer in the specialty chemical industry, saving his employers over $100 million across US, China, and German plants. Andrew worked as a software engineer on data infrastructure at Meta and optimization problems at a seed-stage startup. He also completed a Masters degree at Harvard specializing in Machine Learning.

Full description — after

Poka Labs builds an AI platform to help sales reps at chemical manufacturers respond to requests from customers and win more business. Our agent understands each companies product catalog, customer purchase behaviors, and company specific pricing logic to price, quote, and win the business. Malay and Andrew met while pursuing their MBAs at Harvard Business School. Malay previously worked as an engineer in the specialty chemical industry, saving his employers over $100 million across US, China, and German plants. Andrew worked as a software engineer on data infrastructure at Meta and optimization problems at a seed-stage startup. He also completed a Masters degree at Harvard specializing in Machine Learning.

Category shift
Factory Robotics & AutomationFactory Robotics & Automation
Summary

Poka Labs pivoted from automating operations tasks in chemical manufacturing (like production scheduling) to building an AI sales assistant for chemical manufacturer reps. This is a fundamental change in product focus, from operations automation to sales enablement, representing a full pivot.

Detected 1 month ago · 2026-04-09