May 11, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Launched in San Francisco in 2016, Full Harvest has a mission – to be a solution to the $2.6 trillion global food waste problem. The company’s digital marketplace is the only B2B online platform connecting farmers with commercial produce buyers for the sale and purchase of imperfect and surplus produce. 

“…we’re solving several of the biggest pain points of our customers – produce buyers and suppliers – essentially for free, in a digital online platform that makes it very simple to purchase produce,” Christine Moseley, Full Harvest founder and CEO, told GAI News in January. 

“There was all this edible food, but because retailers have gotten larger and larger, and with more buying power, they were becoming the main driver for how farmers grow their products,” Moseley explained. “And farmers acquiesce because if they lose the Walmart or Costco business, they could go out of business. Consumers got pickier and pickier, and retailers heeded that call, demanding perfection from the farmers. This essentially changed the way farmers operated – harvesting the perfect produce, then throwing away the rest, oftentimes paying to have it hauled away as trash because they didn’t have a market or customer to sell the product to.”

“And since reports show that more than a quarter of all edible produce does not even leave the farm, by using our system, farmers have the opportunity to increase their bottom line by up to 25 percent!,” Moseley told GAI News. “We can help them unlock those excess sales within minutes online with access to new markets, creating more flexible supply chains. And that’s a game changer.”

Investors think it’s a game changer too. In December 2021 the company announced it had closed on a $23 million Series B led by TELUS Ventures. Today, Full Harvest closed on an additional $5 million in growth financing from Rabobank’s Food & Agri Innovation Fund (RFAIF) and JAL Innovation Fund, increasing their total Series B to $28 million. 

Full Harvest stated that the addition of Rabobank, the global leader in food and ag banking with a focus on being a driver in the transition to sustainable food, as a new partner, along with JAL Innovation Fund, has broadened its access to a range of connections that will be key to its next phase of growth.

“Too much food ends up being wasted while it is still perfectly edible,” said Berry Marttin, member of the managing board, Rabobank. “With our investment into Full Harvest, we support Christine and her team in tackling the very real problem of food waste at the farm level, by allowing farmers to sell all their fresh produce to commercial food producers, including imperfect or surplus produce. Innovations like these are essential to guarantee a safe and sustainable food supply for a growing global population, and are good for people, nature and to tackle climate change.”

“Software has disrupted traditional, analog-based industries and agriculture is ripe for innovation,” added Masanori Yamato, principal, Translink Capital. “Full Harvest’s digital marketplace brings sustainability and the agriculture economics to a new level by converting old-school operations to a more efficient, transparent and real-time supply chain technology solution.”

“The marketplace also utilizes richer analytics and optimization across the whole supply chain to drive efficiency gains that have been realized before,” continued Yamato. “We are excited to help Full Harvest expand into the international markets in the near future.”

Go Team!

Concurrent to the increased backing, Full Harvest has also expanded and deepened its leadership, appointing experienced online marketplace executives Nicolas Genest to the role of chief technology officer, and Brenton Keath as chief financial officer.

Genest was most recently the founder and CEO of CodeBoxx, and previously served as CTO at multiple top digital leaders including Walmart eCommerce, The RealReal, ModCloth, and Vente-privee group – which is now Veepee – where he drove record growth and facilitated successful exits for past organizations.

Keath hails from Rakuten Medical where for six years he was CFO/COO. Prior to that he was at Rakuten for six years where he helped execute global marketplace strategy. He brings decades of experience in Australia, Japan, and the U.S., where he led global M&A teams and held financial positions at some of the world’s top companies including KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Hewlett-Packard.

Full Harvest stated that Genest will head up the company’s continued marketplace expansion with Keath, who will guide its financial strategy – together supporting a push to break into new markets, strengthen partnerships, and enhance distribution channels.

The company also appointed Omar Chaudhry to the role of VP of product. Previously co-founder of OlioBox Inc. and B2C ag marketplace Farmgrub.com, Chaudhry will support the company’s continued product strategy and help ensure an intuitive user experience.

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.