BOSTON & HOLSTEBRO, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Creative Force, the leading end-to-end creative operations workflow platform for e-commerce retailers and brands, today announced it has raised $8.9 million in Series A funding from Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Hearst Ventures, the global venture capital division of Hearst. The new funding brings Creative Force’s total funding to $17.9M. Creative Force will use the funding to scale its Danish headquarters and new U.S. office in Boston and integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform, empowering retailers and brands to harness the capabilities of AI in their creative workflows and produce superior content that is on-brief, on time and on budget.
“Creative Force will help retailers and brands increase their creative production tenfold,” said Thomas Kragelund, CEO and co-founder of Creative Force. “We offer the only platform that manages the entire e-commerce content production workflow from end-to-end, so we are in a unique position to leverage generative AI to drive innovation at all stages of production, from planning to final file delivery. The investment from Hearst Ventures and EIFO will enable us to scale and holistically solve a perennial content production challenge, enabling brands to focus more on creativity and business goals.”
How Creative Force Works.
Statista forecasts global e-commerce sales to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026, and companies must produce increasingly copious amounts of content at scale to promote new products, entice customers, drive sales and remain competitive. 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. Creative Force’s cloud-based, end-to-end workflow platform reshapes and streamlines the paradigm. It provides a single source of truth for all creative assets through every step of content production, giving brands unparalleled visibility and control over their creative operations. As a result, Creative Force helps large brands and studios produce new content in less time and launch products faster, avoid mistakes, reshoots and manual data entry, improve communication and collaboration throughout the entire content production process, maintain high quality and enforce creative consistency, and increase efficiency by at least 30%. The Creative Force platform easily integrates with popular creative software, including Capture One, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Workfront.
Launched in November 2019, Creative Force handled more than 10M creative assets through its platform in the past year and has been quietly building its technology and working with some of the world’s biggest brands, such as Columbia Sportswear, OTTO, ALDO, David Yurman, Tommy Bahama, and others.
“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,” said Megumi Ikeda, managing director at Hearst Ventures.
"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," said Jacob Bratting Pedersen, partner at EIFO.
About Creative Force
Creative Force is the leading end-to-end workflow platform for e-commerce content creation that enables retailers, brands, and commercial studios to deliver high-quality and consistent e-commerce and editorial images, video, and copy at scale. The cloud-based platform provides a single source of truth for all creative assets through every step of content production, giving creative leaders and teams unparalleled visibility and control over creative operations. With industry-leading integrations with Capture One and Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Workfront, Creative Force is the workflow platform of choice for some of the world’s biggest brands and retailers, including Columbia Sportswear, Bestseller, ALDO, Tommy Bahama, boohoo, OTTO, David Yurman, and more.
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Holstebro, Denmark, with its U.S. headquarters in Boston, Creative Force is a privately held company backed by EIFO and Hearst Ventures. Learn more at creativeforce.io and LinkedIn.
About Hearst Ventures
Hearst Ventures is the global venture capital division of Hearst, one of the nation’s largest global, diversified information, services and media companies. Hearst Ventures is one of the most active and successful corporate venture funds, with more than $1 billion invested to date. Learn more at hearst.com/ventures.
About Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO)
The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark is a state-owned fund that supports businesses that grow the Danish economy and green the globe. Learn more at eifo.dk.
