RELEX Solutions founders establish charity foundation to tackle climate change and inequality
Michael Falck, Mikko Kärkkäinen, and Johanna Småros, the three co-founders of RELEX Solutions, together with one of the Finnish retail tech firm’s first employees, Marko Nikula, have announced a new charity foundation, RELEX Foundation for a Better Future.
This has received a cash injection of €10 million and almost €100 million worth of RELEX Solutions’ stocks from the founders.
“It’s important for us to reinvest our success into causes that accelerate positive impact in the world,” says RELEX Foundation's Chairman of the Board, Marko Nikula.
“RELEX Foundation is on a mission to help build societies where people want to live their lives. We support and advance initiatives that preserve the environment, mitigate climate change, and drive more equal societies.”
Between 2023–2025, the foundation’s focus will be on mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss, reducing inequality and poverty, and supporting early intervention to reduce young people’s risk of marginalisation.
It will provide funds to different stakeholders, including charitable and non-profit organisations, foundations, and research organisations. Annual impact assessments will be conducted to measure the success of the initiatives’ strategic goals.
The foundation will act as an independent organization. Besides its name, RELEX Foundation is independent of RELEX Solutions.
Funding round
Earlier this year, RELEX Solutions announced a €500 million funding round led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG), Blackstone’s growth equity investing business.
This put its valuation at €5 billion
The company, which previously raised over €200 million, said it would hire hundreds of developers and experts to grow its technical team that at the time stood at over 400 people.
RELEX’s clients include Dollar Tree, M&S Food, Franprix, Morrisons, PetSmart, Sephora, and Rossmann.
The AI driven, cloud-based RELEX Living Retail Platform helps retailers and brands reduce waste, costs, and manual work by automating and optimising their demand planning, merchandising, supply chain, and workforce planning, and find new ways to meet consumer needs while improving operational efficiency and controlling costs.
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