UK's Sourceful raises $12.2 million to make supply-chain sustainable

The seed round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Eka Ventures, Venrex and  Dylan Field, founder of Figma. Danny Rimer, partner of Index Ventures, joins the board, Sourceful said in a press release.

However, despite mounting pressure from regulators and consumers, companies wishing to reduce their supply-chain emissions face several roadblocks. One is the lack of rich data or shared language around specific items: ‘bioplastic’, for example, might mean one thing to one supplier, and a different thing to another one. Business-to-business sourcing is also a highly fragmented and increasingly global market, and unlike the apps available for consumers, there’s no seamless way to shop and pay for business inputs. The consequence is that it’s next to impossible for companies to properly scope out their options and understand their true environmental footprint. Sourceful tackles the problem in several ways. First, it allows companies to shop for emerging environmentally-conscious products in its marketplace of handpicked and carefully monitored suppliers, according to Sourceful.

Secondly, Sourceful has created a universal standard or protocol that can be used by buyers and suppliers alike to assess the sustainability impacts of different sourcing choices. These standards look at data on greenhouse gas emissions over the whole lifecycle of a product, from manufacture to shipping and logistics through to end of life. By surfacing this data, Sourceful not only allows companies to analyse their existing supply chains, but also identify areas for improvement.

Finally, it uses data-driven optimisations to provide intelligent inventory-management and warehousing services. This means companies can proactively replenish and restock products, giving them more time to focus on their brand and cutting the need for significant on-site storage. With a new capability set to launch in 2022, businesses will be able to find, customise and design packaging, understand the sustainability impact of their specific choices and make decisions based on real-time data. The pre-release version is already allowing businesses to minimise their carbon footprint and to make products more cost-effective and of better quality.

Sourceful will use the new funding to scale its current operating model and build out its technology platform for sustainable sourcing. Sourceful will also invest in talent across technology, sustainability, marketing and operations. The team has grown fivefold since the start of 2021 and is aiming to reach 60 employees by the end of the year. In addition, Sourceful has co-invested into Sourceful Climate, Europe's first platform to give businesses access to support frontier carbon removal.

“We built Sourceful because we wanted to strike at the root cause. It’s all very well to ask people to ‘shop responsibly’, but the reality is that consumers only have the choices that businesses offer, and it’s not fair to put the burden on individuals to constantly sacrifice cost and convenience,” Sourceful’s CEO and co-founder Wing Chan said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)