Three German companies in European Supply Chain Scale-up Contest 2024 final

Digilo, Holocene and The Climate Choice are the three scale-ups that will compete in the final of the European Supply Chain Scale-up Contest 2024. They won their places thanks to their diverse applications of artificial intelligence (AI) at different points in the supply chain. During the inNOWvate Supply Chain Event on 22 May, it will become clear who will be the successor to last year’s winner: Dutch company RTI Blockchain (pictured).

Entirely by coincidence, the three finalists this year are all from Germany. Each of them approaches the current challenges in the supply chain with fresh eyes and contributes innovative solutions. During inNOWvate, which is organized by Supply Chain Media at the Pathé cinema complex in Amsterdam-Noord, the Netherlands, they will make their appearance on the main stage. In a three-minute pitch, in a bid for the top prize, they will each explain how they made it to the final of the competition. Event participants can then vote for their favourite finalist. The scale-up with the most votes will be declared the winner of the European Supply Chain Scale-up Contest 2024.

Digilo

Munich-based Digilo was founded in 2021 as an IT integrator for warehouse logistics and now has 25 employees. Its simple yet innovative ‘digi’ solutions are designed to streamline warehouse operations and increase staff efficiency. This scale-up offers real-time solutions compatible with ERP, WMS and TMS systems, dramatically improving manual warehouse processes. Digilo uses beacon technology, camera-based ‘stereo vision’ and AI image recognition in the warehouse to improve efficiency. Digilo’s solutions lead to faster and error-free order picking and loading of trucks and containers.

Holocene

Berlin-based scale-up Holocene launched in 2022 and currently has 16 employees. Holocene provides an AI-driven software-as-a-service solution that captures human knowledge related to international logistics operations. Its digital assistant provides import/export teams and global supply chain leaders with secure knowledge, more efficient automated processes and improved transparency, helping them to become proactive and resilient to exceptions and disruptions. Holocene also developed its proprietary machine learning technology to automate international logistics administration.

The Climate Choice

With the launch of The Climate Choice in 2020, the founders wanted to integrate carbon accounting into procurement decision-making. For companies in the supply chain, Scope 3 decarbonization means collecting audit-ready data from thousands of suppliers every year. The Climate Choice offers a specialized platform that provides supplier-specific data on carbon emissions. The scale-up uses artificial intelligence to collect climate-related data from suppliers and ensures the quality of that data to actually achieve Scope 3 emission reductions. The Climate Choice currently has nine employees.