Food waste is a 40% of food is wasted annually . Full Harvest believes this is a distribution problem that can be solved by digitizing the produce supply chain.
The San Francisco-based company’s produce business-to-business marketplace provides a way for produce buyers and sellers to quickly close deals on surplus or imperfect crops in just a few clicks. It also creates an additional revenue stream for farmers.
Founder and CEO Christine Moseley told TechCrunch that a majority of produce companies are still using pen, paper and fax machines to do business.
“This is one of the most important industries, and we wanted to automate and bring the industry online to solve things that haven’t been solved before,” she added. “For example, there is a ton of paperwork involved in buying and selling, but by automating the onboarding process, that process that used to take weeks now take minutes.”
It’s been a while since we checked in with Full Harvest. We profiled the company at the beginning of its journey in 2016 and then again in 2017 when it raised
Full Harvest is not alone in addressing food waste and raising venture-backed capital for their efforts. Just this year, we’ve seen announcements from companies like:
11 million in Series A capital for its B2B food surplus marketplace and a social commerce feature for group buying by consumers.
Shelf Engine, working to reduce food waste in grocery stores, brought in a additional \)"> 2 million in September.
Food sharing app OLIO brought in Apeel, known for its plant-based layer covering fruits and vegetables, brought in \)"> 250 million in Series E funding.
Too Good to Go secured Martie launched in November with \)"> 3 million in seed funding to divert shelf-stable items from landfills.
Imperfect Foods brought in $95 million in Series D funding for its sustainable grocery delivery.
While that list of companies is innovating technology in the produce space, Moseley considers Full Harvest unique in that its expertise is on the sustainable product side and it has proven itself as a leader in digitization of the produce supply chain, putting it ahead of the curve on both fronts.
Up next, the company plans to secure partnerships around logistics technology to scale further and expand on the SKUs it is able to offer.
“We saw significant increase in our technology and user experiences after finishing some automating processes that were previously offline for the industry,” she added. “We also expanded on our spot buy marketplace and hit a big milestone of 50 million pounds sold.”
So Full Harvest got busy developing some technology that includes a spot marketplace with a matching algorithm and visibility so that buyers could see what suppliers had available. It also created a third-party audit and verification process to provide consistent specifications to reduce the average amount of rescued produce that is turned away. The industry average stands at 10%, while the company’s rejection average is 1% to 2%, Moseley said. Within the past two years, Full Harvest’s impact on keeping food out of landfills grew five times, prompting the company to seek additional capital to keep the momentum going. Today, the company announced \)">23 million in Series B funding. Telus Ventures led the round, with participation from new investors Rethink Impact, Citi Impact, Doon Capital, Stardust Equity and Portfolia Food & AgTech Fund, and existing investors, including Spark Capital, Cultivian Sandbox, Astia Fund and Radicle Growth. As part of the investment, Jay Crone, investment director at Telus, joined Full Harvest’s board of directors.
It’s been a while since we checked in with Full Harvest. We profiled the company at the beginning of its journey in 2016 and then again in 2017 when it raised
- TreeDots raised \)">
While that list of companies is innovating technology in the produce space, Moseley considers Full Harvest unique in that its expertise is on the sustainable product side and it has proven itself as a leader in digitization of the produce supply chain, putting it ahead of the curve on both fronts.
Up next, the company plans to secure partnerships around logistics technology to scale further and expand on the SKUs it is able to offer.
“We saw significant increase in our technology and user experiences after finishing some automating processes that were previously offline for the industry,” she added. “We also expanded on our spot buy marketplace and hit a big milestone of 50 million pounds sold.”