Creating standard for sustainability megatrend
Welcome investor!
Infine helps companies lead sustainability. We have developed Infine Sustainability Management software that builds sustainability insights automatically from existing data for use in management, marketing, procurement, and product development.
We have already attracted a wide range of significant international customers and knowledgeable partners, such as our pilot customers R-kioski (Reitan Convenience) and Néstle. With our help, both businesses and consumers can easily become more sustainable and be part of the solution today.
We have already attracted a wide range of significant international customers and knowledgeable partners, such as our pilot customers R-kioski (Reitan Convenience) and Néstle. With our help, both businesses and consumers can easily become more sustainable and be part of the solution today.
Previous image
Next image
Infine in brief
Founded in 2018, Infine is a Finnish SaaS company that builds automatic sustainability evaluation for consumer products and services. Infine Sustainability Management software is a scalable AI-based tool that provides companies with a real-time overview of their sustainability for data-driven decision-making and business. The evaluation takes into account social, economic and environmental sustainability as well as climate change mitigation – in a total of nine different sustainability dimensions. It grants companies access to the know-how of the foremost sustainability experts.
As a first step, we build a sustainability data model for groceries and household goods to make product sustainability understandable, comparable and easy to use in business. Evaluations have already been carried out successfully for 170 customers.
Sustainability evaluations have already been carried out successfully for 170 companies
The evaluation can be utilized e.g. in marketing, selection decisions, purchasing, production and business development
Infine has built its understanding around the decision-making process of the independent Sustainability Panel's and the latest research data.
Sustainability evaluations create a product data model for each individual product, stating:
1. actual sustainability features
2. sustainability issues
3. relevant missing data
In addition to the universal aspects of production, the model identifies features that are relevant to the sustainability of the product and its production chain.
The sustainability evaluation is made based on the product data already collected by the company. It is combined with Infine's own research database, global datasources and indexes, and the expertise of Infine's sustainability experts and advisors.
Companies can use the results of the evaluation in marketing, selection decisions, purchasing, production and business development. Sustainability evaluation is an essential tool for risk management for any company selling consumer products: it can help avoid, prepare for or reduce risks, as well as implement sustainability in business reliably and formally.
The Infine team
Infine currently employs 14 people, 10 of them as employees of the company and the rest as committed entrepreneurial partners. 10 people from the team are also shareholders in the company. Tiina Saukko, the CEO and founder of Infine, owns 37% of the company, other personnel and the network's partner entrepreneurs a total of 36%, and the Board of Directors and other small investors 22%. The remaining shares are held by the company.
You can get more information about the company's valuation, finances and cap table from Tiina Saukko.
Meet the core team
Tiina Saukko (M.Sc. Econ.) has comprehensive experience in creating growth and impact, campaigning and fundraising. Besides Finland, she has experience from Great Britain, East Africa and India. Tiina is the founder of Infine and in addition to general management, Tiina is raising the next funding round. Tiina's extensive and versatile expertise has enabled Infine to quickly pivot into digital business after the Covid-19 crisis.
Elina Koskipahta (M.Soc.Sc.) has strong competence in communications and marketing and skills in conceptualization in the public sector, NGOs, and startups. At Infine, she focuses especially on bringing the customer needs perspective into product development and making complex sustainability knowledge easy to understand.
Elska Kolu has an in-depth understanding of the systemic dimensions and the impact of sustainability. She brings in her strong expertise in developing the sustainability data model and conducting cross-product sustainability evaluations.
Jyri Partanen (FM) has 25 years of expertise in technology and startup development at a strategic level. Jyri's expertise as a public finance expert complements Tiina's expertise in a vital way.
Ari-Pekka Lappi (M.Phil) is a long-standing professional in the software industry who has succeeded as an agile coach, Scrum Master, software architect as well as a user experience expert and product visionary. He brings with him a strong knowledge of data and software architecture combined with business-oriented thinking.
Professor Minna Halme (D.Sc.) is the chair of the Sustainability Panel, and is part-time with the company. Minna works at Aalto University as a professor of sustainable business management. Minna and Tiina have developed the model of relative sustainability. Together with the rest of the Sustainability Panel, she is responsible for creating the outlines for the sustainability evaluation.
See other panel members
Why invest in Infine?
Infine's vision is to create a standard for the sustainability evaluation of products. Sustainability is not a typical megatrend, but a permanent change in the operating environment – therefore, one can be positive that more research data will be generated to support corporate responsibility. As a result, legislation will also tighten and consumers' growing awareness will increase the demand for sustainable products. Thanks to these trends, Infine is well positioned to offer an alternative to the growing number of companies that want to minimize their sustainability risks and contribute to maintaining the viability of our planet.
The first category will be food, with a European market value of US$ 2,024.00bn in 2023
Expansion through automation development
Based on its proven concept and experience in building a sustainability data model, Infine is well positioned to advance its expansion plan. Infine plans on moving to the next strategic phase by strengthening the development of an AI-based solution. Infine's evaluation capacity will expand and speed up evaluations significantly. The development work will also diversify the data model, enabling Infine to serve an ever-widening market segment. Infine also expects to achieve significant benefits derived from cost-effectiveness, as automation reduces the share of manual work in the evaluation process.
We set the standard for sustainability evaluation
The market is already saturated with services that focus on single elements of sustainability. For example, there are several services monitoring climate impact based on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas calculations. Impact is often measured with models that are useful for understanding broader phenomena, but don’t assist in the day-to-day management of sustainability. Useful as they might be for businesses, they are often labored and costly.
Infine predicts similar development for sustainability to that of digitalisation at the turn of the millennium. Thus, sustainability begins to transform from a separate sustainability department into a necessary element of all functions.
Infine's revenue is achieved through the sale of a clearly positioned and branded service: the sustainability evaluation of a product and the selection insight derived from it. Companies interested in the service are usually willing to pay a higher price based on a strong brand and reliability. Brands are acts, and in Infine's case, the act is product development based on reliability, strong scientific foundation, and scalability.
The goal is a turnover of 10 million euro by the end of 2024
Additional investments to increase efficiency and profitability
As part of its strategy, Infine plans to make additional investments in automation in the coming years (below) to streamline operations and improve profitability. The total production of the service can also be increased from the current state by taking advantage of market opportunities, such as the opening of demand-driven new customer industries.
Financial and operational objectives
By the end of the year 2023
- Two international retail chains and several SMEs as customers
- Turnover of 1M€, including the full success of the technology
- EBITDA of 25% of net sales
- The semi-automated artificial intelligence solution handles all sustainability evaluations
By the end of the year 2024
- Operational development by building a fully automated artificial intelligence solution for data management and sustainability evaluation
- Turnover of 2M€
- EBITDA above 15% of net sales
Automated sustainability evaluation
Infine is developing a scalable, smart technology based sustainability evaluation for consumer products to help companies win the market. The evaluation provides companies with real-time information and action points on how to improve both marketing and product management. With our model, sustainability knowledge can be easily created from the existing product data companies manage.
The data model for automated evaluation is ready for groceries and wood, paper and ceramic -based fast-moving consumer goods. Our technology has achieved the ability to automatically evaluate thousands of products in the 3nd quarter of 2023.
Sustainability evaluation as a method has already been applied to various consumer products and services, ranging from Korkeasaari Zoo to a Viking Line cruise ship and Puustelli’s Minus kitchen. The public results of the evaluation – brief sustainability descriptions focusing on the positive features of the product – are available on the Ostavastuullisesti.fi website.
Our sustainability evaluation customers:
Tuotto-odotus on linjassa muiden huipputeknologiayritysten kanssa
Infinen kasvuodotukset ovat eettisestä missiosta riippumatta huipputasoa. Odotamme voivamme tarjota sijoituksille 3–5 vuoden aikajänteellä 30–50-kertaisen tuoton. Tuotto-odotus perustuu osoitettuun kasvavaan asiakaskantaan, vahvaan teknologisesti kyvykkääseen vastuullisuustiimiin ja ESG-vastuullisuus -toimialan räjähtävään kasvuun.
The company has achieved the ability to automatically evaluate thousands of products on the third quarter of 2023: pilot customers R-kioski (Reitan Convenience) and Néstle
The company has achieved the ability to automatically evaluate thousands of products on the third quarter of 2023: pilot customers R-kioski (Reitan Convenience) and Néstle
EU taxonomy will become binding legislation
Production and commercial benefits of sustainability evaluations
Infine's automated evaluation significantly cuts company's costs while improving manageability. Potential sustainability issues are detected during the evaluation process, therefore the additional work on sustainability can be properly targeted and resources considerably saved.
The evaluation also provides factual, science-based material for corporate responsibility communication and marketing, e.g. for advertising agency briefings. This helps mitigate the risk of greenwashing and allows marketing communications to be properly targeted at sustainability-oriented consumers.
Corporate responsibility is embodied in selection decisions. Sustainability evaluation reveals potential sustainability risks to purchasing or production and provides a basis for informed decision-making. The cost of sustainable choices are often equal to other options. Infine's customer companies also benefit from the continuously growing sustainability database and the development of machine learning with each new product and product group.
The Infine Sustainability Evaluation is suitable for all companies operating in the consumer market. In the past, product sustainability has been evaluated reactively as one-off consulting projects. Infine's evaluation both cuts costs and takes the company's sustainability work to a level that meets today's standards. The sustainability data model also anticipates future reporting obligations, which helps our sustainability evaluation customers prepare for the upcoming requirements in advance. In a marketing context this also means future opportunities to stand out and win the market competition.
Favorable megatrends
As a megatrend of the 2020s, sustainability is strongly shaping the business environment. Infine's service focuses in particular on the following elements:
- Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need for understanding sustainability
- Corporate financing is increasingly linked to proven sustainability
- Instead of avoiding single risk products, consumer demand is becoming more holistic
- Regulation and control will tighten, for example, the EU taxonomy and the EU Digital Product Passport will become binding legislation
- The employer brand and attractiveness are increasingly built on sustainability
An easier solution for managing sustainability
The pressure on companies to identify and develop their sustainability is constantly increasing. According to the Confederation of Finnish Industries' Sustainability Barometer (EK and Aula Research, 2021), two out of three SMEs list limited resources as the biggest challenge for their sustainability work. Companies feel that they need help, especially in the development of sustainability indicators (54%), carbon footprinting (42%) and corporate responsibility reporting (34%).
The Infine Sustainability Evaluation offers an easy and cost-effective way to take over your own sustainability work with standard product information. It benefits especially those in the early stages of their sustainability journey, such as SMEs. Another significant customer group are the big retailers. From their product data we can easily identify missing information, key sustainability risks, and the actual sustainability features of the products.
The sustainability evaluation gives a clear overview of the sustainability state of the product or service, as well as action points for improving product development, procurement and marketing. The process can be repeated whenever product data changes, making it possible to guide decision-making at all times with real-time sustainability data.
Companies need help especially in developing indicators (54%), calculating their carbon footprint (42%) and reporting on corporate responsibility (34%)
88% of companies already take sustainability into account in their purchasing decisions
The sustainability evaluation takes into account the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, as well as tackling climate change. The model provides companies with a comprehensive overview on the sustainability of their business – their products and services – for both reporting and financing needs. This creates a positive impact that springs directly from the company’s core business.
According to the FIBS Corporate Responsibility 2021 survey, 88% of companies already take sustainability into account in their purchasing decisions. However, only one in ten companies saw resources available for sustainability increasing in the coming years. Scalable tools are needed to meet the growing demand for sustainability, as well as to remain competitive in the changing operating environment. With our help companies can develop their sustainability and comply with the requirements coming from investors, regulation, consumers and supply chains – with the resources that are available now.
Sources: SME Sector Sustainability Barometer: Personnel is the most important area of sustainability for SME employers, EK 2021. Corporate Responsibility 2021, FIBS. Resource-wise citizen, Sitra 2019.
Product information at the core of sustainability
Sustainability data must be derived from the company's actual business – from the production process, origin, raw materials and logistics of the products sold. While things like compensation, donations, and social activism are relevant forms of corporate responsibility, they do not represent the hard core of sustainability.
Corporate responsibility can no longer be offset by “compliance with laws and regulations”. The requirement for transparency is already a basic level of responsibility. Information being the key element of transparency, understanding what is actually being sold is essential for all businesses.
According to Infine's estimates, about 80% of companies targeting the consumer market need support in the area of sustainability data. The company must be aware of its own production chain and its direct and indirect effects. By automating the evaluation process, we can bring significant improvements to the management and utilization of sustainability data. We will scale not only the sustainability evaluation, but also the impact.
About 80% of companies targeting the consumer market need support in the area of sustainability data
Tiina Saukko, Founder & CEO
Interested in investing in Infine?
Ask for the investor deck and more information from Tiina
We also take small investments in non-voting Series B shares. B series has the same financial rights as the series A shares.
Finnish
English