Collo, a Tampere-based technology company that provides industrial customers with high resolution liquid analyzers and related IoT solutions, has secured €5 million in a fresh growth investment round. SEB Greentech Venture Capital and FORWARD.one co-led the funding, joined by the existing investor Scale Capital.

About Collo

  • ColloidTek Oy (Collo) was created in 2017 following considerable scientific research on liquids at Tampere University by its founders and key individuals. Collo develops and commercializes Collo technology for a variety of business sectors, assisting companies in better understanding and developing their liquid processes, whether through advanced process control, improved process quality, or optimized process stages.

  • Any kind of liquid can be swiftly characterized by Collo's analyzer. It provides food and beverage businesses with continuous, real-time measurement, allowing them to better optimize and control their production flows, save water and raw materials, and lower their output of waste and CO2.

  • Global food and beverage corporations including Fonterra, Danone, and Valio, the largest dairy companies, are among Collo's current clients. 

How it works 

  • According to Collo's estimates and market research, a typical mid-sized dairy factory can lose up to 8 million liters of raw milk annually as a result of insufficient inline process management. These dairies can save up to 35 million liters of clean water and 11 million kg of CO2 emissions by using Collo's analysers to drastically reduce these losses.

  • The method is based on dielectricity, a well-known phenomenon that Collo exploits in a novel way via an EMF field. This field has a distinct effect on each liquid. Collo creates the Liquid Fingerprint, a set of metrics or data profile, based on this response.  

  • The sensor works with any liquid in the plant, eliminating the need for several standard sensors. Furthermore, its analytics and machine learning capabilities deliver actionable insights for plant management rather than simply measuring data. This enables food and beverage industry operators to manage processes without the need to maintain sensors or evaluate raw sensor data.

"All savings are realised through process optimisation using existing infrastructure. Any processing company can implement Collo analysers to bring their plants to the IoT era and make their processes sustainable without a need for large investments in new production lines,” Matti Järveläinen, CEO at Collo, explains.

Investment details

  • The round was co-led by SEB Greentech Venture Capital, a Swedish VC firm investing in green technology, focusing on transformative ideas, and FORWARD.one, a Dutch VC that invests in European hardware innovations in the fields of semiconductors, climate tech and high tech. 

  • Additionally, the existing investor Scale Capital, an early stage technology investor helping Nordic founder teams scale and win in the US market, also participated in the financing.

The fresh €5 million expansion capital will allow Collo to develop its unique solution internationally while also improving sustainability by reducing emissions from dairy factories.