Recruitment and pilot customers in focus for Original Creation

Start-up company Original Creation is taking big steps forward with its digital traceability system. With funding from Vinnova and new contacts from BizMakers Forest Business Accelerator, the company is approaching its first pilot.

In December, Original Creation was awarded just over SEK 1 million in funding from Vinnova through the research and innovation programme Advanced Digitalization. The money will be used to develop a working product during the first half of 2024. Original Creation is developing a digital traceability platform that will make it possible to follow products from raw material to finished product, and also guarantee authenticity. The technology is expected to be useful not least in companies' sustainability reporting, where traceability requirements are constantly being tightened.

As a participant in BizMaker's business development program Forest Business Accelerator,Original Creation hasmade many contacts in the forest industry, including SCA and RISE through the Processum Biorefinery Cluster, which is one of several interesting industries. In addition, the company has signed a letter of intent with a company that produces environmentally friendly biochar, a difficult-to-trace product that is often sold under a false flag.

In addition to industries with forest raw materials, Original Creation is also looking at the textile industry, where the work on traceability has already come a long way. In addition, a clothing company can benefit doubly from the technology when it comes to counteracting piracy, says Linnea Brännström:

- For a high-profile brand such as Louis Vuitton, proof of authenticity, which is also part of our platform, can be just as interesting as traceability.

Building a sustainable society

In Forest Business Accelerator, Original Creation has spent a lot of time building the company from scratch. In addition to developing and verifying the technology, this involves signing shareholder agreements between the founders and starting to look at the skills needed going forward.

- We are now starting a thorough preparation for an upcoming investment process. When we find the right investor, we will expand the team and, among other things, look for a financial expert and a UX designer. In a startup like Original Creation, the roles can include slightly broader tasks than normal, so it is important to find the right people who are keen on the startup world," says Linnea Brännström.

The Vinnova project consists of up to four phases, which will help prepare the companies for commercialization. In the next phase, Original Creation will verify its product with customers, and in 2025 it will refine the details and move towards a broader launch.

- In ten years, we have grown, first in the Nordic market and then globally, to become an obvious tech partner in traceability globally," says Linnea Brännström.