Augment Acquires Merlin, Brings Alex Moazed Into $8 Trillion Distribution Market
Augment acquired stealth AI company Merlin to secure a foothold in the $8 trillion U.S. wholesale distribution sector and appointed industry veteran Alex Moazed as president of wholesale distribution. The deal responds to freight broker and carrier demand for distribution-specific AI and integrates Merlin’s domain expertise with Augment’s agentic AI platform, Augie.
1. Acquisition of Merlin
Augment has purchased Merlin, a stealth AI startup focused on wholesale distribution, marking its first entry into the U.S. wholesale distribution sector valued at over $8 trillion.
2. Executive Appointment
As part of the transaction, Merlin co-founder Alex Moazed joins Augment as president of wholesale distribution alongside Merlin’s co-founders Nick Johnson and John Schumacher, former head of AI at Grainger.
3. Market Opportunity
The U.S. distribution industry relies heavily on fragmented legacy systems and manual processes, with enterprise distributors using up to six different ERPs and spending excessive time on order entry and quoting tasks.
4. Technology Differentiation
Augment’s platform, Augie, employs agentic AI to execute standard operating procedures written in natural language, ensuring customer data remains isolated and addressing challenges like unit conversions and customer-specific SKUs.