Controlant, an emerging leader in digital supply chain visibility solutions for innovative pharmaceutical and food industry enterprises, today announced that it has been named the winner of the 2020 Icelandic Innovation Award, which was announced at Iceland’s Annual Innovation Congress on November 18, 2020. Controlant is recognized for its real-time Cold Chain as a Service® Digital Visibility Platform, which brings unprecedented visibility, efficiency, and responsiveness to global temperature-controlled supply chains.
The Icelandic Innovation Award is organized and presented annually by Rannís, the Icelandic Center of Research, Promote Iceland, The Innovation Center of Iceland, and the New Venture Business Fund. The award, which was first granted in 1994, recognizes pioneering Icelandic companies that have developed clear visionary and transformative ideas. It emphasizes the important relationship between research, innovation, and knowledge, and its value creation for the local economy.
“Innovation has become a major theme for Icelandic organizations across virtually all industries. This year’s recipient is a testament to the creativity, passion, and perseverance of high-performing teams,” said Karl Guðmundsson, Chairman of the Jury, Director of Trade and Invest at Promote Iceland. “We are thrilled to be honoring Controlant as they are leading by example and making real progress on improving the lives of so many people around the world.”
“We are honored to receive this innovation award and acknowledgement from Iceland’s innovation community and are proud of our team’s hard work in making Controlant’s solutions indispensable to our customers and to the supply chain industry,” said Gisli Herjolfsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Controlant. “Our growth journey exemplifies the importance of increasing visibility and safety throughout the pharmaceutical and food supply chain, to deliver critical vaccines, medicines, and food products that have a material impact on people’s lives and reduce environmental waste.”
Quick facts about Controlant
- The co-founders, Gísli Herjólfsson (CEO), Stefán Karlsson (COO) and Erlingur Brynjúlfsson (CTO) all met in childhood and/or at university, as graduate students, and conceptualized Controlant as part of their Master’s program.
- Approx. 90% of Controlant’s customers are in the pharma & life sciences market (manufacturers and logistics). Customers include Chipotle, Teva, Allergan (now part of Abbvie), P&G, World Courier, Boots Walgreen Alliance.
- Controlant is growing in the food & beverage market, including manufacturers, logistics, fast casual restaurant chains, and retail (which is around the same size as pharma and growing at a slightly faster rate – around 10%+ CAGR in total).
- Currently supporting the distribution of COVID-19 test kits; will be monitoring vaccines.
- Raised an oversubscribed $15m Series B, coordinated by Arion Banki, with participation from Sjóvá and VÍS, as well as, family offices, and individual investors. Previous investors include Frumtak, a VC firm in Iceland which invested in 2011. Total funding is $50m with $7M in AR this year; and +/- $40M AR projected next year.
- Expect to double in headcount over the next year (110 now in Reykjavik and distributed across the US, UK, and Ireland).
Congratulations, Controlant!!