Holstebro, Denmark-based Creative Force, an end-to-end creative operations workflow platform, announced that it has raised $8.9M (approximately €8.4M) in a Series A round of funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $17.9M (approximately €16.9M).
The investment comes from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Hearst Ventures, the global venture capital division of Hearst.
Creative Force says it will use the funding to scale its Danish headquarters and new US office in Boston.
Elaborating on the expansion plan to Silicon Canals, Thomas Kragelund, CEO and co-founder of Creative Force, says, “Specifically, we’re targeting strategic growth in key markets like the UK, DACH, the Nordics, France and Spain. Each market presents unique opportunities, and we’re excited to deepen our collaborations with brands and retailers there.”
The company also aims to integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform to enable retailers and brands to leverage the capabilities of AI in their creative workflows.
What does Creative Force solve?
Historically, brands have outsourced content production to multiple vendors or struggled to handle it internally.
The workflow to produce creative content includes everything from conducting numerous photo shoots, producing videos, scanning product sample barcodes, creating 3D models, copywriting, internal and external coordination, booking models, art direction, editorial oversight, file management, post-production, retailer or channel signoff, and more.
Here’s where Creative Forces comes into play.
Creative Force: Workflow platform for eCommerce content production
Founded in 2019, Creative Force is a cloud-based workflow platform that helps large brands and studios create new content quickly, launch products faster, and avoid errors, manual data entry, and reshoots.
The company claims the platform improves communication and collaboration throughout the entire content production process, maintains high quality and consistency, and increases efficiency by at least 30 per cent.
The Creative Force platform also easily integrates with popular creative software, including Capture One, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Workfront.
On working with European clients, Kragelund says, “Being a Danish company, we already have some great relationships with European customers, and 45 per cent of our sales are in Europe. Current customers include European retailers and brands like boohoo (UK), Debenhams (UK), OTTO (Germany), Breuninger (Germany), PVH (Netherlands), Scotch and Soda (Netherlands), J.Lindeberg (Sweden), Marc O’Polo (Sweden/Germany).”
Creative Force handled more than 10M creative assets through its platform in the past year alone and has been quietly building its technology and working with some of the world’s biggest brands.
“We’ve been actively growing our European sales and customer success teams to support our growth and provide the best service possible to our European clients. I believe having team members in the regions we support is important. That way, our team understands the local needs and challenges (and sometimes even speaks the local language). This allows us to add genuine value for our customers,” adds Kragelund.
What the investors say
Hearst Ventures makes strategic investments in companies operating at the intersection of media, information, and technology. It is a global investment group with offices in NYC, London, Beijing, and Tel Aviv.
The VC’s notable investments include Via Transportation, Buzzfeed, Roku, Sling Media, HootSuite, Brightcove, E Ink, Pandora, and XM Satellite Radio.
“Creative Force is poised to reshape the landscape of e-commerce content creation. The company’s goal of empowering creative teams to transition from cost centers to value-add contributors within their enterprises, amplified by AI innovation that is mindful of the rights of IP holders, promises an exciting future where brands and retailers can drive sales increases and enhance customer experiences in an increasingly digital world,” says Megumi Ikeda, managing director at Hearst Ventures.
The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) provides a single point of access for Danish companies as well as for their foreign and domestic business partners who need risk-tolerant government capital
“EIFO is expanding investment to growth-stage tech companies. We have a longstanding relationship with the seasoned entrepreneurs at Creative Force, and this fuels our confidence in the company’s growth potential,” says Jacob Bratting Pedersen, partner at EIFO.