RELEX scales AI-driven retail planning to cut food waste, backed by EIC and large private investment

Food waste is a policy and climate priority in the European Union. The Commission estimates that roughly 88 million tonnes of food are discarded annually in the EU. Technology vendors and investors have responded with software that aims to reduce spoilage by improving forecasting, replenishment and allocation across grocery supply chains. One prominent example is Finland based RELEX Solutions which has developed a unified retail planning platform that combines forecasting, inventory optimisation and replenishment with AI and machine learning. The company has framed this capability as a direct lever to reduce fresh food waste while improving availability for shoppers.

What RELEX offers and how it works

RELEX positions itself as a unified, end to end planning platform for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers in the consumer goods sector. The vendor mixes conventional forecasting methods with modern machine learning models and real time signals. Modules on the platform include demand planning, demand sensing, replenishment, fresh store ordering, assortment and planogram optimisation, promotion and price optimisation, production scheduling and master planning. The stated aim is to give a single view of demand and supply from raw material to store shelf, enabling automated replenishment and scenario planning.

Claims on impact and what to check

RELEX and the EIC have highlighted a range of benefits from deploying the platform. According to the EIC feature and RELEX materials these include lower inventory levels, higher sales through improved availability, reduced fresh spoilage and improvements in store presentation. The vendor reports specific figures such as up to 30 percent reduction in inventory and up to 40 percent reduction in fresh spoilage for customers. Those headline numbers are presented as typical case study outcomes rather than independently audited industry wide averages. They deserve scrutiny because results depend heavily on the baseline practices of each retailer, data quality, category characteristics and the depth of integration across suppliers and stores.

Independent verification points to several conditional truths. First, better forecasting combined with automated replenishment can reduce over ordering and waste in perishable categories. Second, the scale of impact varies by product category and supply chain maturity. Third, the operational costs and time needed to integrate a new planning platform can be substantial, especially for large retail groups that run many legacy systems.

Funding history and company scale

RELEX was founded in 2005 and grew steadily into an enterprise software company selling to major retailers and manufacturers. The company reported multiple rounds of private capital. Publicly disclosed milestones include a 2020 investment from Technology Crossover Ventures reported at around €176 million and a large growth round in February 2022 of approximately €500 million led by Blackstone Growth with participation from other institutional investors. In its corporate materials RELEX reports about 1 300 employees and offices in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

Role of the European Innovation Council and EISMEA

RELEX is one of the beneficiaries of EIC support. The European Innovation Council provides blended finance, coaching and access to investor networks for scaling deep tech companies. The EIC Accelerator offers grants combined with equity investments via the EIC Fund. In the EIC story RELEX credited the Accelerator with accelerating product development and supporting its path to global leadership in retail planning software.

From an ecosystem point of view, the EIC plays a catalytic role by reducing early financial risk, signalling quality to private investors and opening doors to networks. That said blended public private funding also introduces complexity around accountability, downstream ownership and expectations about exit timing. The EIC can help, but it is one actor among many in an innovation ecosystem that includes national funding, venture capital and corporate procurement.

Market position, customers and analyst recognition

RELEX highlights a wide customer base across grocery and consumer goods sectors and cites references from large retailers such as Lowe's, Rossmann, Family Dollar, ICA Sweden and others. On its website the company lists solutions for multiple industries and emphasises a configuration first approach that adapts to customer processes. RELEX also points to analyst recognition including a Leader position in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning Solutions.

Vendor success stories and analyst placements are important signals for procurement committees. At the same time procurement teams must validate claims against their own KPIs, run pilots that measure uplift in forecast accuracy, fill rate and waste reduction and build a business case that covers software license costs, integration expenditure and organisational change.

Risks, governance and data protection considerations

Platforms that rely on machine learning require high quality data and careful governance. Retailers must address who owns and controls demand and inventory data, how supplier confidentiality is preserved and how model recommendations are audited. With large datasets and cross border operations issues such as data transfers, local privacy rules and cloud residency policies matter.

The EISMEA and Commission sites also remind users about practical data protection points such as cookie management, logging and how personal and business data are used in EU funded programmes. Organisations selecting planning platforms should verify data processing agreements and ensure vendors can meet local compliance and audit requirements.

Barriers to impact and where attention is needed

Operational and commercial factors can limit the pace at which software reduces waste. Key challenges include legacy IT landscapes, inconsistent data across suppliers, the cost and time of enterprise integrations, change management across merchandising and store teams, and varying procurement priorities between head office and stores. Smaller retailers may not have the IT budgets or data maturity to deploy sophisticated planning suites quickly, leaving a gap in coverage.

From a policy perspective, digital tools are part of the solution for food waste. They help at the retail stage, but waste reduction also requires changes upstream in packaging, logistics and product design and downstream in consumer behaviour. Technology can reduce, but not eliminate, food loss.

Takeaways for innovation policy and procurement

RELEX is a useful case study in how a European SaaS vendor can scale with a mix of EU support and private capital. For policy makers the key lessons are that blended finance and acceleration services can strengthen firms that address policy priorities such as food waste. For procurers the lessons are that vendor claims need verification through pilots and that successful deployment requires money and time for systems integration and organisational change.

The hype around AI in supply chain planning contains practical value, but it is not a silver bullet. Expect measurable gains where data quality, integration and governance are strong. Expect more modest or uneven results where those conditions are not met.

Practical checklist for retailers considering RELEX or similar platforms

If you are an innovator developing solutions in this space the EIC accelerator remains a relevant option to bridge early technology risk and reach customers. If you are a city or regulator seeking reductions in food waste, technology is one tile in a broader policy mosaic that includes procurement rules, waste reporting and consumer education.

For journalists and analysts the RELEX story is a reminder to treat vendor impact claims as starting points for verification rather than as conclusive evidence. Large private investments and analyst recognition are important signals but they must be matched with transparent case study data to judge public policy outcomes.