The unclaimed billions of global trade have a new accountant - and it does not use spreadsheets.
Every shipping container that crosses a US border pays a toll. Some of those tolls are refundable - the law says so. The catch is that the law also buried the refund under a mountain of forms, deadlines, and HTS codes so dense that most businesses simply walk away. Over ninety percent of eligible firms never claim a cent. That is the quiet scandal Caspian was built to end.
Caspian is an AI-native trade advisory platform. In plainer terms: it connects to a company's shipping and inventory records, reads them the way a very patient customs expert would, and finds the duties that were overpaid or never reclaimed. Then it files the paperwork directly with US Customs - in days, where the old way took months.
It is also, unusually, a licensed US customs broker and a CBP-approved software vendor. Most startups in this space sell a dashboard and wave at the regulators. Caspian holds the license itself, which means the software does not just suggest the claim - it can submit it.
The result reads less like a SaaS tool and more like an automated trade department that happens to live in the cloud. Importers, exporters, e-commerce brands, manufacturers, brokers and freight forwarders all feed it the same messy data and get back something rare in this industry: clarity, and a check.
Together, we'll help importers close compliance gaps, maximize tariff refunds, and increase transparency.
Caspian was founded in 2024 by Justin Sherlock and Matt Ebeweber, two operators who had scaled logistics at Flexport. Sherlock ran Flexport Capital, where he had a front-row seat to a strange pattern: even tech-enabled logistics providers kept failing to help shippers claim the duty drawbacks they were owed.
It was not a knowledge problem. It was a labor problem. The work was so manual - email threads, spreadsheets, reconciliations across a dozen systems - that nobody could do it consistently at scale. So the refunds went unclaimed, year after year, by the billion.
The bet behind Caspian is simple to state and hard to build: trade compliance is a software problem wearing a paperwork costume. If a machine can ingest the data, model the HTS codes, and keep pace with tariff policy as it shifts, then the refund stops being a luck-of-the-draw event and becomes a default.
In July 2025, Primary Venture Partners agreed, leading a $5.4M seed round with Blank Ventures alongside. The money funds one thing above all: teaching the platform to find more money, faster.
Generates and validates duty drawback and refund claims, then files the documentation straight to US Customs and Border Protection.
Plugs into 80+ ERP, logistics and inventory systems to reconcile and centralize scattered trade data.
Real-time tracking of every claim, its status, and payout - in a single view instead of an inbox.
Keeps product and HTS classification data current as tariff codes and policy change underneath you.
Surfaces recoverable money, duty exposure and compliance risk across a company's entire trade footprint.
HTS modeling, tariff auditing, post summary corrections, protests and audit-ready record management.
Caspian's early clients span consumer brands, manufacturing and beyond - alongside the brokers and freight forwarders who handle their freight. A sample of the names on file:
Plus unnamed importers across automotive, retail, electronics, chemicals and food.
Founded in San Francisco by Justin Sherlock and Matt Ebeweber, both ex-Flexport.
Public launch and $5.4M seed round led by Primary Venture Partners, with Blank Ventures participating.
Partnership with Cass Information Systems delivering a combined tariff cost management solution.
This partnership strengthens our ability to help importers manage tariff costs with greater accuracy and transparency.
See how the Automated Claim Engine turns raw shipping data into a filed CBP claim.
Find demos →Justin Sherlock on why duty recovery is a software problem in disguise.
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