TrusTrace names new chair as revenues climb

Swedish traceability specialist TrusTrace has named tech industry veteran Jorgen Smidt as chair of its board, as it starts to expand its business beyond Europe.

The company focuses on fashion supply chain traceability, providing more than 40 fashion and retail brands with verified data in real-time, as materials and finished goods move through the supply chain.

Smidt began his career at the forefront of the mobile phone revolution during the early days of Nokia, and since then co-founded investment group Sunstone Capital – now known as Heartcore Capital – and has held board member position at a string of tech companies including FreeSpee, FlatFrog Laboratories, Asetek, Onomondo, and inriver.

TrusTrace said in a statement that Smidt is heading up its board as the company has gone from making 100 per cent of its business from European clients to having 13 per cent from North America and 4 per cent from Asia-Pacific.

The company doesn't provide a breakdown of its financial figures, but said it ended 2021 with a 181 per cent increase in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and predicts it will end the current year with a 200 increase.

"The appointment of Jorgen Smidt is another significant step forward in our growth," said TrusTrace's chief executive and co-founder Shameek Ghosh.

"Jorgen will lead the TrusTrace board to support and further develop the rapid global expansion of our supply chain traceability and compliance platform."

TrusTrace counts a number of high-profile clothing companies among its customers, including sportswear giant Adidas, outdoor clothing company Fjallraven, sports retailer Decathlon, knitwear brand Fillipa K, and footwear firm Icebug, amongst others.

Its traceability platform aims to accelerate sustainable transformation within the fashion industry by solving major supply chain transparency and sustainability challenges. With partner Haelixa, it is also implementing a joint traceability programme supporting end-to-end traceability through physical tracers such as invisible DNA markers.