A Man on a Mission - Taha Yassine Zinifi Bridges the Gap Between Real-World Problems and Advanced AI Research

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Many people believe that we each come into this lifetime with a purpose – differentiated not only by our own unique personality and skill set, but also by the various lived experiences that shape us throughout our development. Of course, we do not live or operate in this world as individuals. We, as a species, are deeply connected. This is more important than ever before, as humanity finds itself in a critical moment of self-destruction and division. We are being called to move away from our well-ingrained patterns of self-centeredness and individualism, to instead turn towards the collective.

Thankfully, there are people like Taha Yassine Zinifi who are using their talents and knowledge for the greater good. In his own words, he is “committed to [helping] organizations around the world leverage technology as a force of good and [contributing] to build a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable society.” For Taha, technology, mathematics and data were always subjects of great interest and great success. He completed his Major in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science with a Minor in Product Management from the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique in France, which he attended on a full scholarship.

Problem Solving for the Supply Chain

The first step in his career was as a data scientist for ClearMetal, a predictive logistics company that uses data science and AI to solve the most complex problems in the global supply chain. Not only was his tech-mind of great value in this position, but he also had a unique appreciation for the struggle of the Average Joe in the supply chain. This was thanks to his childhood experience of watching his father work tirelessly for a small trucking company in Morocco. Taha was thrilled to have the opportunity to improve the circumstances for future generations of those like his father.

Undeniably, his impact on ClearMetal’s development was very significant. As co-lead of the Predictive ETA initiative, Taha iteratively assessed data sources and statistical methods in order to create the ClearMetal Continuous Delivery Experience (CDX) platform. The CDX software enables supply chain organizations to optimize logistics and provide their customers with easy access to accurate and live information about their shipments. This highly profitable technology, which accounts for 30% of the company’s recurrent revenues, utilizes proprietary machine learning algorithms to surpass static-visibility paradigms, in order to make sense of supply chain data. The robust platform took the company’s revenue from almost nothing to $4M ARR, while dramatically improving the flow and transparency of transportation and logistics for its clients.

Problem Solving for Natural Disasters

In 2018, Taha decided to follow his entrepreneurial heart and left ClearMetal to found Kernel Risk, a startup that was backed by the highly renowned YCombinator accelerator, which he operated remotely from his home in France. Kernel Risk was a remote sensing startup that leveraged satellite imagery to transform how insurers model catastrophic risk, bringing more financial stability and improving the emergency response on the ground. For Taha, the overall goal was to help improve the resilience of our societies against natural disasters.

After running four paid pilot programs with major European insurance institutions, including COVEA and CCR, Taha managed a team of data scientists to design a computer vision model predicting building damage following a natural disaster. Kernel Risk was incredibly successful and Taha Zinifi went on to sell the core technology just one year later.

Problem Solving for Customers

With a wealth of new experience under his belt, Taha returned to ClearMetal in 2019 as a Lead Product Manager. In this new role, he took on the responsibility of managing the entire product lifecycle of the core platform, from customer discovery to product launch. With a relentless obsession for practicality and deep empathy for users, he has played an essential role in developing a highly differentiated product while shaping the company’s award-winning customer-centric culture.

In fact, his role has been cross-functional as he also represents the company in strategic meetings abroad while helping other teams to generate growth using the product by refocusing the company’s sales messaging, providing marketing tools to generate effective leads and overseeing product analytics. During one of these trips abroad, Taha spontaneously ran an onsite experiment that actually resulted in shipping the most used and appreciated feature by customers. His work has contributed to a 400% increase of the company's recurrent revenues.

When the COVID-19 outbreak hit the world in 2020, ClearMetal was beyond grateful to have Taha Zinifi on their team. The pandemic affected the transportation and logistics industry more than almost any other, leading to substantial delays and obstacles in the global supply chain. One of the largest partnerships of ClearMetal is with Georgia Pacific, and Taha has been working intimately with their Director of Marine Logistics, Trey Closson, throughout the pandemic as their ocean freight market has experienced significant volatility. According to Mr. Closson, “After meeting with members of [their] team, [Taha] designed a simulation tool that helped considerably to streamline negotiations with carrier providers and avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra costs.”

Taha Zinifi is more than just a data and tech whiz. His interpersonal skills and passion for problem solving make him a key asset for any company. He takes the time to understand the complexities of an issue and dives deeply into the data, analytics and experimentation process to find the most effective solution. His work was absolutely essential to ClearMetal’s success, and led to their recent acquisition by project44. Adam Compain, Founder & CEO of ClearMetal, shares that “Now, joined with project44, there’s no question this is the industry’s #1 platform and our combined team, capabilities, and execution deliver remarkable digital transformation for supply chains and the people who rely on them.” With Taha Zinifi on the team, project44 is sure to continue forward with immense success.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.