Ovido, a Helsinki-based supply chain automation platform, raised €2.4 million (US$2.7 million) in seed funding led by Lifeline Ventures and Kvanted, with additional participation from Illusian.

The funding will help Ovido develop its software and grow operations across Europe, starting with the textile sector.

This industry is significantly affected by the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) regulation, which mandates detailed product-level data concerning sustainability and compliance.

Ovido’s AI-powered platform replaces manual processes and helps companies meet EU sustainability and compliance regulations.

The company is also targeting sectors like packaging and consumer goods, and has begun working with chemical firms such as Kiilto.

Ovido will use the funds to grow its team and enhance its product features.

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🔗 Source: Tech EU

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ EU’s digital product passport creates a market shift in textile supply chains

The EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) regulation represents one of the most significant regulatory shifts for textile manufacturers in decades, creating both compliance challenges and market opportunities.

Set to be mandatory for textiles by 2027, the DPP will require detailed documentation of product lifecycle, environmental impact, and material composition across the entire supply chain 1.

This timing explains Ovido’s strategic focus on the textile industry as an initial target market, as it’s among the first sectors that must comply with these new transparency requirements 2.

The regulation creates substantial operational challenges, with compliance costs projected to be significant and the textile sector expected to generate a large volume of DPPs by 2030 3.

For manufacturers using fragmented data collection methods and manual tools like PDFs and spreadsheets, this regulatory shift necessitates fundamental changes to information management systems and supplier relationships.

2️⃣ Growing gap between regulatory complexity and SME technological readiness

The research reveals a widening technological divide between large enterprises with custom data systems and the SMEs that make up much of the textile manufacturing ecosystem.

Current textile industry compliance practices remain heavily manual and fragmented, with manufacturers still relying on outdated tools like PDFs, Excel, and legacy ERP systems that cannot handle the growing data demands 4.

This gap is particularly challenging in an industry where supply chains are often global and complex. The DPP will require manufacturers to collect and verify detailed information from multiple tiers of suppliers across different countries 5.

Ovido’s funding comes at a time when the need for accessible compliance technology is particularly acute for smaller manufacturers who lack the resources to build custom solutions but still face the same regulatory requirements as larger competitors.

3️⃣ Regulatory compliance becoming a catalyst for broader supply chain digitalization

The research indicates that regulatory compliance is increasingly becoming the entry point for more comprehensive digital transformation in manufacturing.

The DPP is designed not just for compliance but to fundamentally reshape how products are designed, managed, and tracked throughout their lifecycle, creating opportunities beyond mere regulatory adherence 3.

For textile manufacturers specifically, the structured data required for DPP compliance can provide secondary benefits in supplier management, product development, and sustainability reporting when properly implemented 1.

Ovido’s approach of positioning compliance as “just the starting point” reflects this larger industry recognition that well-structured product data can drive operational advantages beyond regulatory requirements, potentially turning a compliance burden into a competitive advantage.

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