Relex Draws $200M Investment

Relex Solutions, a provider of unified retail planning software, has announced that TCV has made a $200 million minority investment in the company. TCV, based in Meno Park, Calif., is one of the largest providers of capital to growth-stage companies in the technology industry and has backed industry-leading companies including Airbnb, Facebook, Netflix, Splunk, Spotify, WorldRemit and Zillow.

Relex said it would use the funding to fuel further growth. The company, based in Finland with U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, provides an end-to-end retail planning solution, enabling companies to improve their competitiveness through forecasting and replenishment, localized assortments, profitable use of space and optimized workforce planning. Its clients include dozens of retailers worldwide, including Albertsons Cos., Food Lion and Hannaford in the U.S.

Relex is focused on convincing U.S. retailers that the time has come to address legacy systems and move toward software capable of harnessing data through artificial intelligence and machine learning tools it says can provide more precise visibility into supply chains and benefit from inventory and waste reduction, improved stock availability, more efficient goods handling and less time spent on ordering.

“The development of retail and supply chain planning has been held back by siloed organizations and limitations in how technologies integrate,” CEO Mikko Karkkainen said in a release. “Our vision is to change how the field works by driving a more responsive unified planning process. We are already off to a good start—now we will increase our speed by accelerating our product development ambitions, hiring more tech talent and investing further into the development of our organization, as well as further expanding our retail-specific machine learning and AI capabilities that complement our core data processing platform.”

TCV took a minority ownership stake in Relex startup as part of the deal. Existing investor Summit Partners will retain an equity stake in the business and will continue to hold a seat on the Relex board, the company said.