Afresh Technologies, the first artificial intelligence-powered fresh food optimization platform for grocers, announced a new $12 million Series A follow-on round of funding led by returning investor Innovation Endeavors.
Other investors that took part in the funding round include Food Retail Ventures, Maersk Growth, Impact Engine, and existing investor Baseline Ventures. This new funding will allow Afresh to accelerate bringing its groundbreaking technology to more grocery partners.
“Grocery stores are the cornerstones of our communities. The current pandemic has re-confirmed the critical role grocers play in our lives. More than ever, these businesses need smart, practical ways to keep stores stocked with fresh, nutritious food, to empower frontline workers, and to run operations in a sustainable and profitable way,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of Afresh. “Our technologies make it easier for grocers to manage all aspects of their fresh departments, and, in doing so, dramatically expand their profitability by preventing millions and millions of pounds of food waste. We’re excited to use this new funding to bring Afresh to more grocers across the country and around the world.”
“In my twenty years running grocery businesses for Tesco, Carrefour, and Ahold USA, I have honestly never seen a tool that is so easy for the store teams to use for fresh food ordering,” said James McCann, Chairman and CEO of Food Retail Ventures and former CEO of Ahold USA. “The KPIs they are delivering are truly game changing. I am excited that this new investment will allow Afresh to support more grocers in the coming months and help us reduce food waste across the US.”
Afresh claims to be the only modern fresh food (produce, meat, seafood, bakery, food service) optimization company that has developed AI-powered merchandising, ordering, and store operations solutions that significantly reduce food waste, increase food freshness, accelerate stock turns, and improve grocers’ top and bottom lines. Front-line staff on the grocery store floor access Afresh’s applications through an AI-powered app that runs on mobile devices. In partnership with its multiple U.S. grocery customers, Afresh is already used to order billions of dollars of fresh food annually.
Afresh Technologies is a Series A startup based in San Francisco that was founded by Matt Schwartz, Nathan Fenner, and Volodymyr Kuleshov. The company came together when they were graduate students at Stanford and was founded as a company in early 2017.
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