Helsinki-based Ovido has secured €2.4 million in seed funding to advance its mission of democratizing supply chain data management through an accessible, AI-driven platform. The company’s new software solution aims to streamline regulatory compliance, facilitate supplier collaboration, and enhance product data management—particularly targeting industries grappling with increasingly complex data demands, such as textiles.
Ovido’s platform addresses a pressing challenge: the current fragmentation in how manufacturers collect and manage product data, which often relies on outdated, manual methods like PDFs, Excel sheets, and legacy ERP systems. This inefficiency is especially problematic in sectors like fashion and textiles, which are now directly affected by the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) regulation and other stringent sustainability mandates such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). These regulations require detailed, product-level information on sustainability, safety, and recyclability, often aggregated from across the entire supply chain.
The company’s CEO and co-founder, Suvi Haimi, emphasises that Ovido was created to simplify compliance in an environment where tools have lagged behind regulatory developments. She describes the platform as a centralised, user-friendly system that replaces disjointed, manual processes and integrates smoothly into daily operations. The platform leverages AI to parse documents and provides functionalities like smart supplier inquiries and a DPP builder, enabling companies to automate data collection and regulatory reporting without burdening suppliers with complex onboarding.
Antti Toponen, co-founder of Ovido, highlights that regulatory compliance is just the beginning. Once product data is structured and centralised, it becomes a strategic asset, fostering sustainability, transparency, improved supplier performance, and ultimately, profitability. This proposition is particularly attractive to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often lack access to enterprise-grade data management tools.
The funding round was led by venture firms Lifeline Ventures and Kvanted, with participation from Illusian, whose CEO Ilkka Paananen, a co-founder of gaming giant Supercell, expressed confidence in Ovido’s potential. He noted the team’s deep understanding of the regulatory landscape and manufacturers’ real needs, predicting that the company’s product and execution strategy could transform complex regulatory challenges into competitive advantages.
Ovido plans to use the capital to expand its team, enhance its platform’s capabilities, and broaden its reach beyond textiles into sectors like packaging, consumer goods, and chemicals. Early collaboration with chemical company Kiilto suggests a successful application of Ovido’s automated data collection in this space.
The need for robust supplier data management solutions is increasingly recognised across industries. Effective management not only supports regulatory compliance but also strengthens relationships with vendors by increasing transparency and communication. Industry best practices recommend standardising, regularly updating, governing, and ensuring the quality of supplier data, often leveraging cloud-based platforms for seamless, scalable operations.
Data fragmentation remains a key barrier to efficient supply chain management, with many companies juggling multiple, disconnected tools for logistics, compliance, and procurement. Unified, integrated supply chain management software is emerging as a critical solution to improve visibility, streamline operations, and enable more informed decision-making. Cloud-based platforms that serve as a single source of truth also enhance collaboration among all stakeholders—manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers—by consolidating data and enabling real-time access.
The growing investment in supply chain tech, illustrated by other recent funding rounds for AI-enhanced planning and procurement platforms, underscores a broader industry trend towards digital transformation. Companies like Ovido are positioning themselves at the forefront by combining automation, AI, and user-centred design to bring sophisticated compliance and data management capabilities within reach of SMEs.
As regulatory pressures mount and sustainability becomes an essential business driver, platforms such as Ovido’s offer a vital toolkit to transform compliance from a costly obligation into a competitive advantage, shaping the future of supply chain transparency and efficiency across Europe and beyond.
Source: Noah Wire Services
