TR Business: “​Travel retail accelerator Blueprint launches Seed Capital investment arm”

Karl Walter and Thomas Kaneko-Henningsen, Partners, Blueprint.

Copenhagen born business development agency Blueprint is launching a new investment entity titled Seed Capital, to fund businesses that are passionate about travel retail and to encourage innovation and boost newness in the channel.

Blueprint Seed Capital, which was announced informally to select media during the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes last week, is a separate company to Blueprint, registered in Denmark.

Its aim is to identify promising and scalable businesses, acquire equity, and work with them to accelerate the route-to-market in travel retail and help build market presence.

“Taking equity stakes is not new to us,” said Blueprint Partner Thomas Kaneko-Henningsen.

“Following our investment in BORN Nordic, a B2B tech distributor with B2C online stores, the company continues to grow double-digit year-on-year.

“In 2022, BORN Nordic delivered 46% year-on-year increase in revenue and the company’s online store generated 53% increase in revenue.”

From left to right: Jesper Conrad, Filip Soete, Jens Bonde-Poulsen, and Thomas Kaneko-Henningsen – all Partners, Blueprint.

“Having successfully completed first trial investments, we felt that it was time to formalise this process,” continued Kaneko-Henningsen.

“These past years we are grateful for being approached by companies seeking ‘intelligent capital’: a hybrid between investments and business development capabilities.

“Thanks to these companies’ feedback, we are excited about introducing Blueprint Seed Capital, a vehicle for bringing extraordinary and unique businesses into travel retail – especially if they fit well within following categories: Sustainability, Digitalisation, Experimental Retail and Personalisation.”