A Finnish Success Story Nobody Knows Of
Relex is a Finnish success story that not too many people know about. The most obvious reason for this is that Relex is not one of the sexy social media services that don't have a business model, but a company providing software for more efficient and automated demand forecasting and inventory managment. The company didn't get any external risk capital from Angels or VCs except some goverment funding and have gottten a flying start with that.
This yet again comes to show that Finland seems to be very strong in software. Historically this is very obvious by looking at the exit market. Out of all the exits between 2000 and 2006 in Finland over 50% has been in Software, whereas Sweden has been the strongest Nordic market in Internet Services, even though that was mostly due to Skype's €2200 million exit. After taking Skype out of the equation, software exits in Sweden count for about 35% of all the exits in the country during the time given time frame (Exit-study by Creandum, 2008).
Relex aims to understand and improve supply chain for example with tools for enhancing the replenishment processes of retail chains. According to the company their customers have been able to improve 1) service levels in their warehouses and shops, 2) product inventory turnover, and 3) the cost-effectiveness of replenishment in both warehouses and shops. The combined financial effect of these improvement measures has been as high as 3% to 5% of the customer’s turnover.
Some of their customers include, ABB, Canon, Fazer and Paulig.
I talk to Relex CEO, Michael Falck, a while ago in ArcticEvening we organized in Helsinki. We talked about their journey so far and how they got where they are. Check it out.
Another well kept secret regarding Skype is that they were not a Swedish company (but the founders were Swedish nationals though). So it was never a Swedish exit per se. The company was a Luxembourgh company when eBay acquired them.
Isn't Janus Friis Danish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_Friis)? And tech guys were from Estonia. Isn't that an artic startup :)
Agree with Toni there. In most exit studies it's counted as a Swedish company.
[...] yhteydessä tehty haastattelu talousjohtaja Michael Falckin kanssa. Juttu löytyy täältä. [...]
[...] Michael Falck, CFO, Relex Oy Relex is a software company providing solutions to companies’ logistical challenges. In essence, they help their clients manage their material flows better. They have four means of helping their customers; 1) increased service levels and shelf availability, 2) lowered inventory, 3) reduced handling and transportation costs and 4)improved forecast acuracy. With these improvements in place they are able to increase their customers’ revenue by 3% to 5%. This shows in their revenue as well – in 2008 year end their revenue was over 600k€ compared to 26k€ just three years earlier. See our coverage on Relex. [...]
[...] Of”. The piece and an accompanying interview with RELEX’s CTO Michael Falck can be found here. [...]