In 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed; a year later, the organization Fashion Revolution was founded, sending the hashtag #whomademyclothes into the world. That was an eye-opener for Mathias Slabbinck, who can lean on an experience of more than 25 years in the Slabbinck family business. He noticed that customers were willing to pay a premium after visiting the workshop in Bruges and understanding how and by whom the textiles were made. He wanted to scale the concept and envisioned “virtual visits” to the workshops. A digital product passport “avant a lettre” was born.

"Sustainability has long been a hot topic that companies cannot ignore. When I played with that idea back in 2014, it was ahead of its time. But in 2019 I built a PoC and after I met Christof in 2020, Quifactum was born. Today, Quifactum provides the infrastructure to create and manage Digital Product Passports — helping companies prepare for regulation while unlocking transparency, circularity and new digital services around their products.