It Goes Forward
Start a pilot
Rotterdam, NetherlandsFounded 2023

About us

A returns problem worth solving.

Carl spent two years building and testing a model for peer-to-peer return forwarding. By 2023 the math was complete and the result was unambiguous. We founded the company that September, before peer review had concluded. Live at Kuyichi since 2025.

Origin

Where this started

It Goes Forward did not start with a business plan. It started with conviction.

Carl had spent two years building and testing a model for peer-to-peer return forwarding, working with researchers at VU Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam. By 2023 the math was complete and the result was unambiguous: the model worked. We founded the company in September of that year, before peer review wrapped up. Pepijn Stribos (tech) and Tim Stribos (commercial) joined as co-founders shortly after. The paper appeared in Omega 128 (Elsevier) the following year, confirming what the live operation would shortly demonstrate independently: up to 44% warehouse return reduction.

We started with validation. We built the product afterwards. Read the full research →

The It Goes Forward team in Rotterdam
The team in Rotterdam.

Our mission

Our mission

Our mission is simple: make peer-to-peer return forwarding the default way Europe handles fashion returns.

Today, four in ten fashion items come back, and most of them make a pointless round-trip to a warehouse before being sold again. We think the returns process can be radically better for the retailer, the consumer, and the planet at the same time. Our goal: every European fashion return running on Forwarding by 2030.

How we got here

How we got here

2021–2023

  1. —

    Research.

2023

  1. Sept

    Paper submitted, company founded.

  2. Oct

    First research grant. MIT R&D subsidy from Provincie Zuid-Holland.

2024

  1. Oct

    Paper published. Omega 128, Elsevier.

  2. Oct

    Mastercard Strive EU. Winner of Innovation Fund 2024.

  3. Oct

    Google for Startups programme.

  4. Nov

    Bold Impact Award 2024.

2025

  1. Feb

    Kuyichi goes live. First live client.

  2. —

    Studio Anneloes onboarding.

  3. —

    Oilily onboarding.

  4. —

    ANWB go-live agreed.

  5. Oct

    DHL NOW&NEXT Expo.

  6. Nov

    KVK Innovatie Top 100.

2026

  1. Mar

    Won eBay's pitching contest. Pilot scoping in progress.

From the founders

We started It Goes Forward because the conventional way of handling returns no longer makes sense. We watched fashion retailers ship items back to warehouses, inspect them, repackage them, and ship them out again, burning money and emissions on a journey that didn't need to happen. Research showed the alternative would work. We founded the company because we already knew the math.

We're a small team, working with retailers who care about getting this right. Our conversations rarely centre on technology. They're about what changes for the consumer, what the finance team needs to see, what the operations team has to learn. We try to be the kind of vendor we would want to work with: honest about what we can and can't do, specific about numbers, and willing to say 'this isn't a fit for you' when it isn't.

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering whether Forwarding is a fit for your operation. We're happy to have that conversation, even (especially) if the answer is no.

Carl van Heijst

Co-founder & Sales lead

Pepijn Stribos

Co-founder & Tech lead

Tim Stribos

Co-founder

Our team

Today: 6 people in Rotterdam: three co-founders, two developers, and one sales agent. Growing.

Founders

Carl van Heijst

Carl van Heijst

Co-founder & Sales lead

Started It Goes Forward. Published the underlying research on peer-to-peer return logistics with co-authors at VU Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Pepijn Stribos

Pepijn Stribos

Co-founder & Tech lead

Joined in 2023 to turn the matching algorithm into a production platform. Leads all product and engineering work.

Tim Stribos

Tim Stribos

Co-founder

Joined in 2023 bringing e-commerce scale-up experience. Former CTO at Dutch marketplace Dwarfs.

We're hiring!

Our team is growing fast and we're always looking for smart people.

View open roles

Advisory board

Our Advisory Board

Advisory board
Marijn Visser

Marijn Visser

A.P. Moller - Maersk

John Poppelaars

John Poppelaars

Doing The Math

AD

Andrei Danilă

CODE932

PR

Prof. Rommert Dekker

Erasmus University Rotterdam

DS

Dr. Sena Ayse Eruguz

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

DW

Dr. Wilco van den Heuvel

Erasmus University Rotterdam

DO

Dr. Oktay Karabag

Erasmus University Rotterdam

ET

Eline Tetteroo

TNO

Our advisory board combines research expertise from Erasmus University Rotterdam, VU Amsterdam, and TNO with industry experience from Maersk and other operators.

Peer-reviewed research

Research foundation

Our matching algorithm is not a feature we added to the product. It's the reason the product exists. The underlying research, co-authored by our co-founder Carl van Heijst with researchers at VU Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, was submitted to Omega in 2023 and published in 2024. We founded the company between those two milestones, on the strength of the model rather than waiting for the citation. No other peer-to-peer returns vendor has published their algorithm. We also maintain OpenReturn, an open-source protocol for the full e-commerce return lifecycle, Apache 2.0 licensed.

Peer-reviewed publication

Omega, Elsevier · 2024

Eruguz et al., Omega 128, Elsevier, 2024

View on ScienceDirectDOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2024.103127

Co-authored with researchers at:

Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamErasmus University Rotterdam

Full research overview

Independent validation

The institutions that have looked closely.

Building something genuinely new in a regulated industry depends on independent validation. Below: institutions that have evaluated us through their own due diligence processes and committed resources, time, or recognition.

Mastercard Strive EU

Mastercard Strive EU

Winner of the 2024 Innovation Fund. Selected from 495 applicants, one of ten companies funded.

eBay

eBay Circular Fashion Fund 2026

Won the pitching contest in March 2026. Pilot scoping with eBay underway. The fund backs companies building circular-retail infrastructure across resale, repair, and return routing.

Google for Startups

Google for Startups

Selected for the Google for Startups Sustainable Development programme, 2024. Provides Google Cloud credits and mentorship.

KVK

KVK Innovatie Top 100

Selected for the 2025 Dutch Chamber of Commerce ranking of the most innovative companies in the Netherlands.

Provincie Zuid-Holland

Provincie Zuid-Holland

Awarded the MIT R&D subsidy in 2023, regional development backing for innovation work.

SoTecIn Factory

SoTecIn Factory

EU-funded social innovation accelerator focused on sustainable business models. Cohort participant.

Beyond these institutions: the peer-reviewed methodology published in Omega (Elsevier), and active scoping conversations with European fashion retailers across multiple categories.

Supported by

Provincie Zuid-HollandStriveSoTecIn Factory