Altana, a New York company that runs an AI network for cross-border trade, said on July 21, 2026 that it had acquired Cervo AI, a startup whose software prepares submission-ready customs entries for global logistics providers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Cervo's three co-founders, co-chief executives Thomas Jiang and Troy Shen and chief technology officer Jason Kurohara, are joining Altana, according to Pulse 2.0. Altana said the combination lets its logistics customers run the full customs brokerage workflow on one AI system.
The deal adds Cervo to a customer base that Altana said includes eight of the ten largest logistics providers in the world.
What Cervo built
Customs brokers are the licensed professionals who get goods across borders. They classify products, determine where they were made, calculate duties, check whether free trade programs apply and obtain permits that agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration require. Then they turn a stream of emails, EDI feeds and PDFs into the formal legal filings that clear each shipment. Altana described the work as historically manual.
Cervo automated the last part of that chain. Its agentic entry writer takes unstructured transaction data and produces customs entries ready to submit, including the partner government agency (PGA) filings that other regulators require alongside the customs declaration.
"We built Cervo to take the most painful, manual work off customs brokers' desks," said Jiang. "Joining Altana gives us the opportunity to bring that vision to the world's largest logistics providers."
“With the acquisition of Cervo, our logistics customers can now run and scale their brokerages on a single end-to-end agentic system — from the moment goods are classified to the moment the entry clears. That's what trusted trade at scale looks like.”
Why Altana is buying
Altana's existing platform covers the earlier steps: working out what goods are, mapping where they and their components come from, and assigning the customs compliance attributes that determine how they are treated at the border. Altana said US Customs and Border Protection uses its system to enforce tariffs and manage borders, and that 140 million buyer-supplier connections are managed on it.
Adding Cervo's entry writer closes the loop from classification to filing. Altana said the combined product lets logistics providers manage and enrich master data automatically, make compliance determinations, process five times as many entries and continuously screen and audit their own work. Those figures are Altana's own claims.
DC Velocity tied the need for such tools to fast-changing tariff rates and constrained global trade flows. Altana put the global customs brokerage market at about $45 billion.
The founders and the funding
Cervo was based in New York. Data tracker VCBacked lists a $5 million seed round in July 2025 from HOF Capital, Zetta Venture Partners and Crossbeam Venture Partners. The companies did not discuss Cervo's funding or headcount in the announcement.
"Altana shares our belief that AI will redefine how global trade operates, and together we're creating the industry's first truly end-to-end AI agentic platform," said Shen. "By combining Cervo's agentic AI with Altana's trusted trade network, we're building an autonomous platform that learns, adapts, and scales with every shipment," said Kurohara.
What Altana says comes next
Evan Smith, Altana's co-founder and chief executive, said the company's goal was to rebuild global trade around an AI network that connects importers, suppliers, logistics providers and governments. With Cervo, he said, logistics customers can run and scale their brokerages on one system, from the moment goods are classified to the moment the entry clears.
"Altana is on a mission to fix globalization by re-architecting global trade — building an AI network for trusted trade that connects importers, suppliers, logistics providers, and governments," Smith said in the announcement. Altana describes itself as a single system of record for products and the value chains behind them, used by customs agencies as well as by importers and logistics companies.
Altana did not say whether Cervo's product would remain available under its own name or be folded fully into the Altana platform.
