Jun 14, 2022
SustainLab awarded funding from Vinnova Innovative Startups step 2 to further accelerate change!
We are over the moon to announce that SustainLab has been awarded a grant of SEK 900,000 as part of this year's call for Vinnova’s Innovative Startups step 2 spring 2022!
A total of 177 companies applied for the grant, and after fierce competition, we are thrilled to be one of the 25 companies selected to receive the grant. The grant is awarded to the most promising and innovative startups in Sweden.
“It feels amazing to have been awarded this grant from Vinnova. It is definitely proof that what we're doing at SustainLab is important and urgent, and that experts from the field at Vinnova believe in our project and our mission to accelerate change for better business–better planet.” says Maria Svantemark, CEO and co-founder of SustainLab (pictured above left).
Vinnova Innovative Startups Funding
Every year, Vinnova awards funding under the Innovative Startups call. The funding is intended to support small, start-up companies that want to grow in Sweden, and have an innovative business idea that can stand up to international competition. The funding is awarded in two steps.
To apply for and to be awarded a grant in Innovative Startups step 2, it is a prerequisite to have already been awarded the grant and completed projects in step 1. In step 1, we developed a proof of concept that demonstrated that the technical solution to automate the work with sustainability data works for different types of raw data within a company.
As a result of our project in step 1, we found that automating the management of sustainability data led to significantly less time and less manual work spent on sustainability management by our pilot customers. It also enabled continuous, real-time insight into sustainability data, rather than an annual review of outdated data. Our pilot customers also found that it increased their understanding and commitment to sustainability work in their organization, and enabled them to make better data-driven decisions. Now that we know the technology works as intended, it’s time for us to take the next step.
“Vinnova funds innovation, so to be awarded this grant is definitely proof of credibility for the innovative approach we are taking in auomating sustainability data handling. It is really exciting to now use this grant for the further development of SustainLab,” says Kamal Hakimzadeh, CTO and co-founder of SustainLab (pictured above right).
What will we use the Innovative Startups grant for?
As a direct continuation of our work in step 1, our step 2 project aims to develop the automation of sustainability data management across the entire value chain of companies – from suppliers to end consumers – and to verify this with our customers and their sustainability data. We also want to increase the commercial value of the technology, and build scalability by being able to handle more varieties of raw data from different types of companies, ensure that data can be transferred securely between actors in the value chain, and add more advanced calculations.
Our hypothesis is that the implementation of the automation technology in the value chain will lead to:
Better capability of processing different types of unstructured data
More efficient sustainability management (less time spent on managing data)
Increased quality of data (less risk of human error)
Increased access to previously inaccessible data
Increased accuracy of sustainability footprint calculations
Increased transparency and traceability of data
Complete and continuous visibility of sustainability data
All these benefits will therefore lead to better product development from a sustainability perspective, and create the conditions for effective sustainability management throughout the value chain, or as we like to say, for accelerated change.
We once again thank Vinnova for recognizing our innovative approach in automating sustainability data handling, and for supporting our mission to accelerate change with this grant! We also wish to thank our customers and supporters who have walked our journey with us – here’s to even more accelerated work – for better business, better planet!
SustainLab is a SaaS Sustainability Management platform that automates the collection, processing, analysis, and visualization of sustainability data, and provides recommendations for improving sustainability performance. Founded in 2020 by Maria Svantemark and Kamal Hakimzadeh, SustainLab works with companies that share the vision that accelerated sustainability work leads to better business and a better planet. SustainLab was featured on BestStartup.eu’s list of top sustainability companies in Sweden, and Sting’s Startup Climate Action Map of top climate startups in Sweden.
For more information please visit www.sustainlab.co and follow us on LinkedIn.
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