Celes

AI-powered B2B SaaS for demand planning, inventory, and supply chain optimization in retail.

Cover Block

From the public record

Field	Value
Name	Celes
Tagline	AI-powered B2B SaaS for demand planning, inventory, and supply chain optimization in retail [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]
Headquarters	Barranquilla, Colombia [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]
Founded	2018 [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]
Stage	Series A [Forbes Chile, October 2026]
Business model	SaaS [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]
Industry	E-commerce / Retail [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]
Technology	AI / Machine Learning [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]
Geography	Latin America [Contxto, July 2023]
Growth profile	Venture Scale [Forbes Chile, October 2026]
Founding team	Luis Ricardo Almanza Herazo, Luis Miguel Ballestas Ayala, David Florián [foundations.axented.com, retrieved 2026]
Funding label	Series A, total disclosed about $9,000,000 [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [The SaaS News, May 2024] [latamlist.com, July 2023]

The Short Version

PUBLIC Celes sells AI-driven software for retail demand planning, inventory, and supply chain execution, and it merits investor attention because public reporting shows a sharp scale-up from hundreds of points of sale in 2023 to more than 8,500 stores across eight countries by October 2026, alongside a new Series A financing [Contxto, July 2023] [Forbes Chile, October 2026]. The company was founded in Barranquilla, Colombia in 2018, and public coverage indicates the founders first operated as a data analytics consultancy before turning recurring retail planning problems into a SaaS platform, a path that usually matters because it suggests the product was shaped by live operating pain rather than a greenfield software thesis [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] [Contxto, July 2023] [forbes.co].

The product sits in the operational core of retail, forecasting demand, optimizing inventory, recommending replenishment and purchasing actions, and integrating with existing ERP and POS systems rather than requiring a full systems replacement [CB Insights] [Contxto, July 2023] [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. That integration-first posture appears to be the main wedge in public materials, reinforced by reported connectivity to nearly 20 ERP and POS systems and by customer references including Olímpica, FEMSA Salud, and Tiendas Neto, though most deployment outcome claims remain lightly corroborated in public sources [Contxto, July 2023] [theinvestorsociety.com] [ecosistemastartup.com].

The founding team reads as commercially relevant for this category: CEO Luis Ricardo Almanza Herazo is reported to have experience in stockbroking, retail-focused financial consulting, investment banking, and CFO roles; COO Luis Miguel Ballestas Ayala previously co-founded Come Ya and later served as iFood's Colombia country manager; CTO David Florián is reported to bring more than 16 years of data-management experience across large Colombian enterprises [foundations.axented.com, retrieved 2026] [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026]. That mix does not prove repeatability in enterprise software at scale, but it does fit the product's intersection of retail operations, analytics, and implementation-heavy workflows [foundations.axented.com, retrieved 2026].

On capital formation, the public record shows a $1 million seed in July 2023, a $3 million seed in May 2024, and a $5 million Series A in October 2026, for roughly $9 million in disclosed funding, with backers including Primeline Group, FEMSA Ventures, SP Ventures, Rockstart, Wayra Hispam, and others [latamlist.com, July 2023] [The SaaS News, May 2024] [Forbes Chile, October 2026]. The business model is straightforward SaaS, but the next 12 to 18 months will likely turn on whether Celes can convert reported deployment breadth and autonomous replenishment claims into durable multi-country expansion, deeper proof of ROI, and evidence that large retail accounts renew and widen usage beyond the initial planning module [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] [startupslatam.com] [Forbes Chile, October 2026].

Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on a mix of independent outlet reporting, database profiles, LinkedIn biographies, and company materials, with several operating metrics and customer outcome claims only partially corroborated.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Value
Stage	Series A
Business Model	SaaS
Industry / Vertical	E-commerce / Retail
Technology Type	AI / Machine Learning
Geography	Latin America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (3+)
Funding	Approximately $9,000,000 disclosed

The Company in Brief

PUBLIC Celes presents as a Barranquilla, Colombia-based software company selling AI tools for retail supply chain planning, rather than as a broad consulting shop dressed up as software later on [Crunchbase] [celes.ai]. Public profiles and the company website align on the core shape of the business: founded in 2018, headquartered in Barranquilla, and focused on demand planning, inventory, replenishment, and related retail optimization workflows delivered as SaaS [Crunchbase] [celes.ai]. CB Insights also indicates the company was formerly known as Biai, which helps reconcile older references that may not use the current name [CB Insights].

The milestones that can be established from company-controlled and company-profile sources are limited but directionally clear. Celes appears to have started in Colombia, built around integrating with retailers' existing operating systems, and later expanded its product surface into modules the company now labels Demand Planning, Distribución, Compras, Celes Autopilot, and supplier collaboration, with current industry positioning around supermarkets and pharmacies [celes.ai]. Crunchbase classifies the company at Series A stage, which is consistent with the financing history attached to its profile, but the public record in this section does not by itself establish a fuller legal-entity history or state filing trail [Crunchbase].

Single-source, plausible -- Relies on company website and company-profile databases, with partial corroboration across Crunchbase, Celes website, and CB Insights.

What They Have Built

Platform scope

MIXED The product is best understood as a retail planning and replenishment layer that sits on top of systems merchants already run. Public descriptions consistently point to demand forecasting, inventory optimization, replenishment and purchasing recommendations, promotion planning, price analysis, and broader supply chain optimization, with integrations into retailers’ ERP and POS environments rather than a required system replacement [CB Insights] [Contxto, July 2023]. The company site describes the same operating model in more explicit terms, saying it converts existing data into demand forecasts and automated purchase and replenishment orders, and organizes the product into modules including Demand Planning, Distribución, Compras, Celes Autopilot, and supplier collaboration [celes.ai, retrieved 2026].

Operating claims and technical posture

MIXED What appears differentiated in public materials is not a novel system of record, but an automation layer for day-to-day retail decisions. Contxto reported in 2023 that the platform integrated with nearly 20 ERP and POS systems, which matters because implementation risk in Latin American retail software often lives at the integration boundary rather than in the forecasting model itself [Contxto, July 2023]. Later company-linked and publisher coverage says Celes processes 55 million forecasts daily across more than 8,500 stores in eight countries, and that more than 90% of replenishment decisions are executed autonomously, although that last autonomy figure is sourced from company materials and should be read accordingly [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [startupslatam.com]. The site also points to pharmacy-specific functionality, including expiration-risk prediction by batch and location, alongside automated purchase orders aligned to lead times, delivery cycles, and working capital objectives [celes.ai, retrieved 2026].

On the evidence available, the technology story is credible at the product-surface level and less resolved at the stack level. There were no verified public job postings in the materials provided that would support a defensible tech-stack inference, so the section rests on product claims, integration references, and reported deployment scale rather than engineering architecture detail [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [Contxto, July 2023].

Unconfirmed -- This section combines independent press reporting with material company-site claims, and several technical details remain company-only or only partially corroborated.

Market Size and Demand

PUBLIC

The market matters now because retailers across Latin America are under pressure to improve on-shelf availability and working capital at the same time, which makes software that sits between demand planning and replenishment more relevant than it was a few years ago [Contxto, July 2023] [Forbes Chile, October 2026].

Public source material does not provide a citable third-party TAM, SAM, or SOM for Celes’s exact category, so the evidence is better read through operating proxies than market-size claims. Those proxies show a company that moved from deployments across more than 400 points of sale in four countries in 2023 to more than 8,500 stores in eight countries by October 2026, while processing 55 million forecasts daily [Contxto, July 2023] [Forbes Chile, October 2026]. That does not establish category size on its own, but it does suggest a large enough addressable footprint among multi-store retailers and pharmacy chains where SKU-level planning, purchasing, and distribution decisions are still fragmented across ERP and POS environments [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights].

Demand drivers are fairly clear from the product surface and the customers cited in public reporting. Celes is positioned around demand forecasting, inventory optimization, replenishment, purchasing recommendations, promotion planning, and supply-chain optimization, with integrations into existing ERP and POS systems rather than a full system replacement [CB Insights] [celes.ai]. That matters in a region where many retail operators run heterogeneous software estates and cannot tolerate long migration cycles. The company’s reported integrations with nearly 20 ERP and POS systems, plus named exposure to supermarket and pharmacy use cases, point to a practical tailwind: buyers appear to want forecasting and replenishment gains without changing core transaction systems [Contxto, July 2023] [celes.ai].

The adjacent markets are broader than pure demand planning. The product touches retail analytics, inventory management, promotion planning, procurement automation, and distribution optimization, which means it can be budgeted against legacy planning software, internal analytics teams, ERP add-ons, or manual spreadsheet-driven operating processes depending on the customer [CB Insights] [ecosistemastartup.com]. That breadth can expand the opportunity, but it also means the relevant comparison set is not one discrete software line item. In practice, the substitute is often the current workflow, especially in regional retail groups that already own ERP infrastructure and are deciding whether better recommendations justify a new layer of software [Contxto, July 2023].

Macro and regulatory forces appear supportive in a narrow, operational sense, even if the sources do not describe a formal policy catalyst. Higher pressure on stock efficiency, margin control, and waste reduction tends to favor tools that can reduce stockouts and improve replenishment decisions, and public reporting around Olímpica points in that direction, citing reduced stockouts and lower logistics costs after implementation [ecosistemastartup.com]. For pharmacy customers, the company also claims the ability to predict expiration risk by batch and location, which aligns with a more compliance-sensitive inventory environment, though that feature remains company-sourced and should be treated carefully until independently validated [celes.ai].

Public market evidence	Cited figure	Source
Earlier deployment footprint	400+ points of sale	[Contxto, July 2023]
Earlier consumer reach tied to deployments	3 million end consumers	[Contxto, July 2023]
ERP and POS integrations	Nearly 20 systems	[Contxto, July 2023]
Later deployment footprint	8,500+ stores	[Forbes Chile, October 2026]
Geographic footprint	8 countries	[Forbes Chile, October 2026]
Forecast volume	55 million daily forecasts	[Forbes Chile, October 2026]

The table is not a market-sizing model, but it does show why the category is investable. The operating footprint expanded materially across three years of public reporting, which is a stronger signal here than forcing an unsupported TAM number onto a market that the current sources do not size directly.

Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on one independent market-oriented news source for 2023 scale, one independent news source for 2026 scale, and company-sourced product positioning for some adjacent-market context.

Who Else Is Fighting for This

MIXED Celes sits in a crowded planning stack where the practical alternative is often not a single rival startup, but a mix of ERP-native workflows, spreadsheets, and category-specific supply-chain software already embedded in retail operations [CB Insights] [Contxto, July 2023] [celes.ai, retrieved 2026].

The public record does not name direct startup competitors for Celes, so the competitive map has to be drawn from adjacent categories rather than a clean peer set. At one end are incumbent systems of record, the ERP and POS platforms Celes says it integrates with, which matter because they already own transaction data and operational workflows [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights]. In the middle are planning and optimization tools that sit above those systems and promise better forecasting, replenishment, and purchasing decisions, which is the lane Celes appears to be targeting through demand planning, inventory optimization, promotion planning, and automated replenishment recommendations [CB Insights] [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. The third category is internal manual process, still a real substitute in Latin American retail, where spreadsheet-based purchasing and store-level judgment can remain entrenched even when the economic case for automation is clear, an inference supported by Celes's emphasis on using existing ERP and POS data without requiring system migration [celes.ai, retrieved 2026].

Celes's clearest edge today appears to be implementation fit for retail operators that do not want a full core-system replacement. The company has consistently framed the product as an overlay on existing ERP and POS environments, and earlier coverage said it had integrations with nearly 20 such systems, which lowers adoption friction relative to software that requires process redesign or data migration before value is visible [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights] [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. That edge is reinforced by sector focus: public materials point specifically to supermarkets and pharmacies, and the company claims capabilities such as expiration-risk prediction by batch and location for pharmacy inventory, which suggests workflow depth rather than a generic analytics layer [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. Still, the durability of that advantage is mixed. Integration depth and category know-how can compound over time, but they are perishable if larger planning vendors or ERP partners close the usability gap and bundle adjacent functions into existing contracts.

The exposure is less about a named startup outcompeting Celes in the public record and more about channel control and product adjacency. The systems that already own store data, purchasing records, and replenishment workflows have a natural distribution advantage because they are harder to displace and easier to extend [CB Insights] [Contxto, July 2023]. Celes also appears concentrated in retail and pharmacy use cases, which is a strength inside those verticals but may narrow expansion into categories where planning logic, compliance, or channel structure differs materially, according to the company's own industry segmentation [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. A second exposure is proof burden. Public claims around 55 million daily forecasts, more than 8,500 stores, and autonomous execution of over 90 percent of replenishment decisions are directionally impressive, but they come from a small set of sources and do not yet establish retention, pricing power, or cross-country expansion quality [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [startupslatam.com].

The most plausible 18-month competitive scenario is a split market. Celes is well positioned to win in mid-market and regional enterprise retail accounts if buyers keep prioritizing fast deployment on top of existing systems rather than core-stack replacement, especially in supermarkets and pharmacies where the company already signals product specialization [Contxto, July 2023] [celes.ai, retrieved 2026]. In that scenario, the winner if integration speed and vertical workflow depth matter most is Celes. The loser if ERP and POS vendors tighten their own planning modules and sell them through incumbent channels is the independent optimization layer, with Celes included in that risk set. That does not make the company structurally weak, but it does mean the next phase of competition likely turns on whether implementation speed can be converted into durable operating dependence before incumbents move further up the stack.

Single-source, plausible -- Based on company materials, CB Insights, and third-party coverage, but the public source set does not identify named direct competitors and several operational claims remain only partially corroborated.

Opportunity

PUBLIC The prize here is straightforward: if Celes can turn retail planning from a fragmented, analyst-heavy workflow into software that reliably automates purchasing and replenishment across large store networks, it has a path to becoming a regional system of record for everyday retail operations in Latin America [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [Contxto, July 2023] [celes.ai].

The headline opportunity is not merely to sell forecasting software, but to become the operational layer retailers trust to decide what to buy, where to place it, and when to replenish it. That outcome looks reachable, not just aspirational, because the public record already shows three ingredients that usually matter in this category: the product sits close to transactional systems through ERP and POS integrations, it appears to be deployed at meaningful scale, and it has referenceable customers in large-format retail and pharmacy [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights] [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [theinvestorsociety.com]. Celes also seems to have moved beyond a consultancy origin into a repeatable software product, which tends to be the inflection point where implementation know-how can start to convert into software margins and broader distribution [Contxto, July 2023] [forbes.co].

The plausible upside case rests on retail being a category where incremental planning gains matter every day, not once a year. Public claims around 55 million daily forecasts, more than 8,500 stores in eight countries, and autonomous execution of over 90% of replenishment decisions suggest Celes is positioning itself at the decision layer of supply chain operations rather than in a reporting-only role [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [startupslatam.com]. If those operating claims broadly hold, the company is selling into workflows that are hard to rip out once embedded.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Regional retail control tower	Celes becomes the default planning and replenishment stack for mid-market and enterprise retailers across Spanish-speaking Latin America	The reported Series A gives the company new capacity to expand commercially, while existing deployment across eight countries provides a base for cross-border reference selling [Forbes Chile, October 2026]	The company already reports multi-country scale and integrations with nearly 20 ERP and POS systems, which lowers switching friction for new retail accounts [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [Contxto, July 2023]
Vertical winner in supermarkets and pharmacies	Celes concentrates on the two segments named on its site and builds segment-specific workflows that outperform general-purpose planning tools	Pharmacy-specific features such as expiration-risk prediction by batch and location, combined with supermarket replenishment automation, create a more tailored product surface [celes.ai]	The company explicitly markets modules and industry solutions for supermarkets and pharmacies, and named customers include both grocery and health-related operators [celes.ai] [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [theinvestorsociety.com]
Strategic channel through investor-customers	Backers and customer networks help Celes shorten sales cycles and land larger retail groups	FEMSA Ventures joined the cap table in the 2024 seed round, and FEMSA Salud is cited as a client, which points to a potentially useful overlap between capital and commercial access [The SaaS News, May 2024] [theinvestorsociety.com]	In enterprise software, investor adjacency can matter when a product needs proof inside large operating environments. The public record does not prove channel use, but it does show the ingredients for it [The SaaS News, May 2024] [Forbes Chile, October 2026]

What compounding looks like here is less a consumer-style network effect and more an implementation and data flywheel. Each deployment appears to deepen the company's library of demand signals, replenishment logic, and integration know-how across ERP and POS environments, which should improve onboarding speed and model performance over time if the underlying customer data remains clean and the use cases stay close to daily retail operations [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights] [celes.ai]. The reported move from more than 400 points of sale in 2023 to more than 8,500 stores by 2026 suggests some version of that compounding may already be underway, even if the public sources do not fully disclose revenue retention or ACV expansion [Contxto, July 2023] [Forbes Chile, October 2026].

There is also a practical lock-in dynamic if automated replenishment becomes part of the customer's weekly operating cadence. Celes says its system can convert existing data into forecasts and automated purchase and replenishment orders without requiring system migration, and public descriptions consistently place the product inside demand planning, purchasing, promotion planning, and distribution workflows [celes.ai] [CB Insights]. Software that sits across those linked decisions tends to become more valuable as more modules are adopted, because a retailer does not want one vendor forecasting demand, another setting purchase logic, and a third coordinating distribution if the data model can live in one place.

The size of the win is best framed through role and category rather than a hard valuation claim. There is no confirmed public market comparable or cited TAM in the source set, so a precise valuation range would be speculative. Still, if Celes were to achieve the "regional retail control tower" scenario, the business could plausibly resemble a strategic supply-chain software platform with entrenched workflows across large store networks, which would make it a meaningful acquisition target for enterprise software incumbents or a candidate for sustained independent scale in Latin America (scenario, not a forecast) [Forbes Chile, October 2026] [Contxto, July 2023] [CB Insights]. The evidence does not support attaching a market-cap number, but it does support a narrower conclusion: the company is already operating in a part of retail software where a trusted position in replenishment and inventory decisions can carry outsized strategic value.

Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on one to two public sources per material claim, with several product and customer specifics supported by company materials or single-publisher coverage rather than broad independent corroboration.

Sources