SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Full Harvest,
the produce business-to-business marketplace specializing in
surplus and imperfect produce, today announced the close of a
$23 million Series B round of growth financing led by agtech
investor TELUS Ventures, the strategic investment arm of TELUS
corporation. New investors Rethink Impact, Citi Impact, Doon
Capital, Stardust Equity and Portfolia Food & AgTech
Fund as well as existing investors Spark Capital, Cultivian
Sandbox, Astia Fund, Radicle Growth and others also joined the
round. Helping solve the $2.6T global food waste problem (the
leading contributor to climate change), Full Harvest plans to use
the funding to further build out its online marketplace, advance
its data and market insights offerings, and triple its technology
and product team in 2022.
Working with some of the largest food and beverage
companies (Danone North America, Health-Ade), processors (SVZ) and
growers (Tanimura & Antle, Church Brothers, Deardorff Farms),
Full Harvest reduces produce sourcing headaches and food waste by
moving the produce supply chain online – allowing buyers to
purchase more sustainable produce, lowering food production costs,
and creating an additional revenue stream for farmers. Tripling
revenue during the first year of the pandemic due to the
industry's desperate need for more flexible,
transparent supply chain solutions, Full Harvest recently hit
a sales milestone of more than 50 million pounds of surplus and
imperfect produce sold – saving over 1B gallons of water from being wasted and over
6M kg of CO2 emissions from being
created.
"The importance of building more sustainable businesses has
never been more evident, especially for those in the food and
beverage space. By sourcing produce online through Full Harvest and
selecting fruit for our products that would otherwise have gone to
waste, we are answering the growing consumer demand for more
sustainable food options," noted Surbhi
Martin, Vice President Greek Yogurt and Functional
Nutrition, Danone North America.
Although we currently grow enough food to feed 9-10 billion
people, more than 40 percent of it goes to waste globally each
year. As more than half of global food waste happens before it even
leaves the farm, Full Harvest aims to help solve the farm
distribution problem. Full Harvest offers an easy, online option
for produce buyers and sellers to quickly close deals on surplus
and imperfect produce in just a few clicks – getting more produce
options to buyers faster, helping farms sell more of their crop and
reducing waste.
"We are committed to leveraging the power of technology to build
a safer, more efficient, and sustainable food chain; and our
investment in Full Harvest aligns with that mission," said
Mario Mele, vice president Corporate
Strategy, TELUS Ventures. "With its strong leadership and
mission-driven approach, combined with our growing expertise in the
AgTech space, Full Harvest is well-positioned to evolve the produce
market and drastically reduce food waste by leveraging data and
technology to digitize what is still a very analog market. We look
forward to helping the team scale the company and transform the
industry to the benefit of farmers, buyers, and the
environment."
Full Harvest will use the investment to accelerate its push
to deliver the advanced technology solutions the produce industry
needs by expanding its online marketplace, further improving
the user experience for both produce sellers and buyers, and
substantially growing its network of national buyers and sellers.
Full Harvest will also focus on expanding its industry-leading data
analytics offering to answer the growing demand for insights on
produce availability, pricing, specifications, sustainable
offerings, quality, forecasting support, etc.
Building on its success with Danone and its Two Good 'Good Save'
yogurt, Full Harvest will also use the funding to scale out the
global use of its Verified Rescued Produce™, setting the highest
standard for on-farm food waste reduction verification. Through the
industry's only third-party audit and verification process for
rescued produce, Full Harvest provides CPG companies the expertise,
network and technology needed to create new products and ensure a
scalable, sustainable produce supply chain with integrity.
"Dedicated to empowering 'full harvests' with zero food waste to
support a more sustainable ag ecosystem, we are transforming a
fragmented and opaque offline produce supply chain into a
flexible, transparent, reliable solution by directly
connecting growers with processors and food and beverage brands
online," said Christine Moseley,
founder and CEO of Full Harvest. "With the influx of capital, we
plan to build on our incredible customer successes and expand into
new markets to make the global produce supply chain more efficient
and sustainable."
Jay Crone, investment director at
TELUS, joined the Board and will work closely with the Full Harvest
executive team to expand and optimize its marketplace and network.
Full Harvest will tap TELUS Agriculture's deep understanding of the
ag industry and comprehensive network of produce farms, CPG
companies and strategic agtech partners to help speed its
expansion.
About Full Harvest
Full Harvest is solving the
$2.6 trillion food waste problem
through technology and innovation. The company runs the only
business-to-business online marketplace connecting farmers with
commercial produce buyers where they can purchase imperfect and
surplus produce. This mission helps reduce climate change by
lowering CO2 emissions and water use and delivers incremental
revenue to farmers. Additionally, the company partners with brands
on their efforts to create new sustainable CPG products and supply
chains to meet consumer demand for sustainable products. A
win-win-win for farmers, food companies, and the planet. Full
Harvest is recognized as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, the
top 2020 Fast Company World Changing Idea, and Forbes Most
Innovative Agtech Startup. Learn more at www.fullharvest.com.
About TELUS Ventures
As the strategic investment arm
of TELUS Corporation (TSX: T) (NYSE: TU), TELUS Ventures is one of
Canada's most active corporate
venture capital funds. TELUS Ventures invests globally in companies
from Seed to Pre-IPO with a focus on innovative technologies such
as AgTech, HealthTech, Connected Consumer, IoT, AI, and Security to
actively drive new solutions across the TELUS ecosystem. Led by a
team of experienced operators, investors and executives, the
Ventures team is passionate about creating positive social impact
through financial tools and has invested in more than 90 companies
since inception. For more information please visit:
ventures.telus.com.
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SOURCE Full Harvest