Las Vegas, Nevada, March 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PartsPulse, an AI-powered platform for managing parts businesses, officially launched today at CONEXPO in Las Vegas. The company has raised $3 million in funding from UP.Partners to accelerate growth and bring its agentic AI technology to manufacturers, dealers, and fleets across the aftermarket parts industry.
Managing an aftermarket parts business is extremely difficult due to a fragmented supply chain and siloed business functions. Sales teams are unaware of how Pricing is clustering customers, pricing teams don't have key market and customer data from Sales, and inventory planners aren't getting timely demand signals from the rest of the business. These problems are plaguing the entire value chain, from OEMs struggling to find opportunity down to equipment owners just needing the right part in the right place at the right time.
PartsPulse delivers the industry's first unified solution that combines inventory planning, pricing optimization, and sales intelligence on a single AI platform. Built in partnership with UP.Labs and co-developed with Wabash, a leading manufacturer of trailers and transportation equipment, the platform serves as an intelligent command center for organizations seeking to maximize their parts business opportunities.
“Parts has become one of the most strategic and under-optimized areas of manufacturing,” said Steve Blanco, Founder and CEO of PartsPulse. “OEMs and dealers are managing millions of dollars in inventory and complex channel relationships with fragmented systems that were never built to work together. PartsPulse gives leaders a real-time, AI-optimized view of their entire parts operation so they can uncover where growth opportunities exist, price with confidence, and stock the right parts at the right time.”
Blanco is a seasoned technology executive and serial entrepreneur with deep experience building and scaling enterprise SaaS companies. He spent 12 years at Documoto, a Denver-based software platform serving over 160 equipment manufacturing brands across 117 countries. Half of his tenure was at the helm as CEO, where he oversaw the company's acquisition by Valstone Corporation in December 2024. Blanco’s background in software engineering, operations, and sales shaped PartsPulse's approach.
The company is working with Wabash to develop its initial product suite that analyzes an OEM’s large volume of sales, customer, and inventory data to identify anomalies and uncover opportunities for increased revenue. PartsPulse is also developing a managed dealer inventory offering that will further strengthen the connection between OEMs and their distribution partners.
"The aftermarket parts business is a massive, underserved market that's critical to keeping the physical economy moving," said Ben Marcus, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at UP.Partners. "PartsPulse is building something unique and differentiated: an AI platform that equips parts leaders to use their businesses as strategic assets. Steve and his team have the experience and vision to make this product the standard for the industry."
The $3 million investment from UP.Partners will support continued product development, team growth, and customer expansion in North America.
About PartsPulse
PartsPulse is an intelligent command center for the entire parts business, serving OEMs, dealers, and fleet managers who rely on parts availability for their operations. The company has developed the industry's first AI-native solution to manage inventory planning, pricing, and sales intelligence on a single platform.
PartsPulse is the first company launched from UP.Labs' Manufacturing Venture Lab, created in partnership with Wabash. The lab operates alongside UP.Labs' other physical AI venture labs built in collaboration with leading corporate innovation teams from companies including Alaska Airlines and Porsche. Learn more at https://partspulse.ai/.
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