RELEX was founded in 2005 by Mikko Kärkkäinen, Johanna Småros and Michael Falck, three friends who met at the Helsinki University of Technology where they studied supply chain, logistics and industrial engineering. Putting this deep subject matter expertise into practice, the team formed RELEX with a vision to offer a more unified and automated approach to managing retail supply chains. With its seamless implementation and demonstrated rapid return on investment, RELEX had won over many of Europe’s largest retailers. In 2015, the founders sought an experienced global investor to help accelerate international growth and technology development.

How Summit helped:

• Led a €20 million minority investment in 2015 as RELEX’s first institutional investor and completed a €10 million follow-on in 2017
• Facilitated introductions to new customers across Europe and North America, including RELEX’s first U.S. customer
• Worked closely with management to successfully transition to a fully recurring SaaS business model
• Performed competitive, market and customer analysis focused on optimizing price and providing a modular product offering
• Helped strengthen RELEX’s financial reporting systems and infrastructure
• Identified potential M&A targets and provided key support for the execution and integration of RELEX’s acquisitions of Galleria-RTS in 2016 and Forecast Solutions in 2018
• Assisted in recruiting a VP of Sales EMEA and VP of Sales North America

Fueled by strong customer demand, RELEX successfully expanded its global footprint. Today, the company operates offices across Europe, North America and Asia and has established channel partnerships in Australia and Africa. RELEX continues to innovate on its unified retail planning technology and offers end-to-end solutions that leverage core data processing, machine learning and AI capabilities to enable retailers, wholesalers and suppliers to improve their competitiveness through accurate forecasting and replenishment, localized assortments, profitable use of space and optimized workforce planning. RELEX is trusted by leading brands across the globe including Coop Denmark, Franprix, MediaMarkt, Morrisons, PartyCity, Rossmann and WHSmith.