START-UP & SCALE-UP CONTEST
Danish start-up Responsibly wins fifth European Supply Chain Start-up Contest, StoreShippers chosen as most promising supply chain scale-up
The Danish start-up Responsibly has won the fifth European Supply Chain Start-up Contest during the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event in Ede, the Netherlands, on 19 May 2022. This prestigious contest is an initiative of Supply Chain Media, publisher of the Dutch trade journal Supply Chain Magazine and the quarterly European publication Supply Chain Movement. During this on-location event, Responsibly convinced the jury and the attendees both on-site and online of the value of its data platform in reducing the complexity of evaluating supplier sustainability and responsible sourcing.
Besides Responsibly, the fifth edition of the European Supply Chain Start-up Contest featured two other finalists: Belgian-based Garvis and Seedtrace from Germany. The jury assessed each of the finalists based on four criteria: commercial potential, disruptive nature, usability, and the clarity of their presentation. After counting the public votes and following an hour of deliberation, the jury unanimously chose Responsibly as the winner. The main reasons were the company’s in-depth domain expertise of sustainable procurement challenges, especially in China, and its advanced use of scraping technology and of artificial intelligence for data gathering.
Thomas Buch Andersson, co-founder and CEO of Responsibly, expressed his gratitude at having won and thanked the organizers of the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event and the contest for putting start-ups in the spotlight. Responsibly’s prize is a marketing campaign worth €20,000 across Supply Chain Media’s various media channels.
Thorough selection process
During the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event, each of the three finalists held an online pitch for the on-site visitors and online attendees. The founders of the start-ups were grilled about their business model, solution and team structure by the very experienced, five-strong jury. It consisted of Emilia Jevakhoff (CEO and founder of Winddle, winner of the 2021 contest), Thijs Gitmans (Fund Manager Mainport at NBI Investors), Mathias Bosse (founding partner of Prequel Ventures and founder of Supply Chain Management Startups), Meinderdjan Botman (former Chief Commercial Officer of DSV Solutions) and Martijn Lofvers (CEO & Chief Trendwatcher at Supply Chain Media). The jury also took the 782 public votes into consideration in the final decision.
StoreShippers chosen as most promising supply chain scale-up
In a separate contest held in parallel during the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event, the most promising supply chain scale-up was announced. One of the main criteria for a business to be considered a scale-up is that it is a young company that has raised more than €2 million in capital. The Dutch scale-up StoreShippers received the most votes from the online audience for its independent solution to measure supply chain-related carbon emissions, thus defeating fellow finalists Carbmee from Germany and Shipnext from Belgium. StoreShippers won a media campaign worth €10,000 across the various media channels of organizer Supply Chain Media.
Supply Chain Media has been publishing the annual Maturity Matrix of European supply chain start-ups since 2018, for which it analyses more than 250 start-ups from across Europe and positions them in the matrix comprising ten different categories of supply chain solutions. Supply Chain Media regards the start-ups and scale-ups in the matrix as being qualified to enter the annual contest
For the sixth consecutive year, Supply Chain Media has published its Maturity Matrix of European start-ups and scale-ups that were founded a maximum of five years ago. In the matrix, the maturity of these young companies is based on age, number of employees, awards won, number of customers and, most importantly, capital raised. They are divided into ten solution categories: Supplier Management, Supply Chain Sustainability, Ocean/Air Freight Forwarding, Inventory Counting & Process Optimization, Tracking & Tracing, Supply Chain Blockchain, Demand Planning & Forecasting, Transportation Planning & Visibility, Road Freight Matching and Last Mile Delivery. This year, there are a remarkable number of new entrants in the Demand Planning & Forecasting category, all of which are applying machine learning (ML) or other artificial intelligence (AI) in their solutions. Start-ups are also increasingly focusing on a variety of digital solutions for sustainability.
The Maturity Matrix for Supply Chain Start-ups in Europe comprises ten different categories of solutions, stretching from supplier management upstream in the chain to last-mile delivery on the customer side. The horizontal axis indicates for each category whether the solution is intended for a single stock keeping unit (SKU), a parcel, a pallet or a complete container of goods. The vertical axis of the matrix shows a company’s maturity based on its age, number of employees, awards won, number of customers, and capital raised.
More recordings of previous editions of inNOWvate Supply Chain Event are available on the YouTube channel of Supply Chain Movement: