Pax | Guide Startups

About

Pax uses AI to automate tariff refunds (aka duty drawback) for retailers and manufacturers. We launched 4 weeks ago and have ~$200K in contracts. Each year, 80% of eligible refunds—equivalent to $15B—go unclaimed. Pax is the first AI-powered broker helping brands under $50M reclaim 3-5% of their revenue. Our algorithms generate 15% more refunds than the industry leader and reduce processing time by 99% with AI. We are two technical founders: Penny got her PhD from MIT and, and was a former research scientist at Amazon & Flexport, where I encountered the problem firsthand. Chris is a second-time founder and former software engineer at Amazon, Brex, and TikTok.

Founders

Penny ChenFounder & CEO

Penny is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pax AI. She has designed and built algorithms for pricing, forecasting, fulfillment, and capacity planning to optimize workflows, costs, and quality across logistics and supply chain. She has extensive experience driving projects at MIT, Flexport, and Amazon, addressing real-world problems through a mixture of AI/ML, statistics, and optimization.

Chris LeFounder

Chris is the Co-Founder and CTO of Pax AI. Before Pax AI, Chris worked on scaling up Amazon's supply chain network where he was introduced to the logistics space. After Amazon, Chris built the TikTok E-Commerce merchant systems from 0-1 and took that learning to build Kyros, a live streaming e-commerce platform in Singapore. Most recently, Chris built the financial rewards and billing systems at Brex.

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