As retailers and consumers demand products that are made sustainably throughout all stages in the supply chain, a transparency software platform provider TrusTrace may have the technology to provide the necessary traceable data.
The Stockholm, Sweden-based company closed a Series A funding round with $6 million in investments Thursday. The round was led by Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital, with additional participation from previous investors BackingMinds and Fashion for Good.
“TrusTrace enables product-level traceability and supply chain transparency to drive better, more sustainably conscious and socially responsible sourcing decisions,” Shameek Ghosh, CEO and co-founder, said in the release. “With this latest funding round, we will continue leveraging cutting-edge technology and the best minds in the industry to achieve positive, restorative change for people and the planet.”
The platform uses AI and blockchain to collect and analyze data on sustainability metrics for food, fashion and retail products, ensuring the data is transparent and not subject to manipulation. It also integrates with supplier, manufacturer, retailer and third-party systems.
TrusTrace gives products a score from one to five for each of the following sustainability areas: water, climate, biodiversity, working conditions, animal welfare, legality, chemicals, eutrophication and soil erosion. Five is the highest and most sustainable score a product can receive for each category.
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Throughout the supply chain, TrusTrace is currently tracking:
- More than 8,000 suppliers.
- 250,000 products.
- $12 billion of goods.
“Supply chain traceability and transparency are critical for retailers to become sustainable. That’s why we are very excited to partner with TrusTrace – the best platform on the market. With a mission to increase sustainability, TrusTrace can make a real and positive impact through their technology, and we are therefore proud to support their journey to become the first impact unicorn,” said Rebecka Löthman Rydå, an investment manager at Industrifonden.
TrusTrace’s story and implementation
The co-founders of the company said they have seen the terrible effects of bad manufacturing practices, such as rivers in southern India catching fire due to chemical pollution from factories. They also said the exploitation of women and children to produce goods for the Western world is part of why they founded TrusTrace.
The mission of the company is to create “trust through traceability” and give consumers the information they need to make sustainable, informed purchasing decisions.
“One of the most difficult things about reducing emissions is collecting data from your supplier network, also referred to as Scope 3 emissions. This data is dispersed, nonstandard, can be incomplete, is often unavailable, and there is a lack of incentive for reporting,” said Danny Gomez, managing director of financial and emerging markets at FreightWaves. “These are the types of problems that are perfect for tech firms who can create value to their customers through aggregation, workflow and business intelligence tools. The investors are seeing the demand and stepping up to the plate to fund new projects.”
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A Swedish supermarket chain, Coop, is currently running a pilot project with TrusTrace. Shoppers can download an app, scan the QR code for different food products and see how each product scores across the sustainability categories.
TrusTrace is participating in several accelerator programs internationally, including Fashion for Good in the Netherlands and Retail Plug and Play in France. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, with additional offices in India and France.
“Together with our partners, we can continue helping brands discover suppliers and map the complete supply chain from source to end product,” Ghosh said.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Alyssa Sporrer.
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