August 15, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

With the completion of its recent Series A-1, Singapore-based agrifood tech startup ProfilePrint has added Cargill as a backer, bringing the total to five of the world’s largest food ingredient conglomerates, representing more than 50 percent of the global food trade, as strategic shareholders. 

To date, existing shareholders in the company include: Netherlands-based Louis Dreyfus Company; Singapore-headquartered Olam International; Switzerland-based multinational coffee merchant Sucafina; and Indonesian food and agribusiness major Sinar Mas, along with a number of institutional venture capital funds.

“We warmly welcome Cargill joining our strategic shareholder ecosystem,” said  Dr. Wong Mun Yew, managing partner, Greenwillow Capital Management. “Cargill’s investment and partnership further solidifies our investment thesis on ProfilePrint’s team and technology as the leading disruptive company in this market.”

The ingredients space has been humming in recent years. Part of the pressure on the industry is coming from global commodities giants vying to reposition themselves beyond commodities, while other companies and investors seek to capitalize upon consumer demands for flavorful, but healthy foods.

Despite the attention, technologically speaking, the food ingredients industry is surprisingly outdated. Currently, a vast amount of resources are tied-up in physically grading food samples across multiple stages of the supply chain, using inefficient, time-consuming processes and costly laboratory equipment to determine quality or to profile a food ingredient, or using sensory panels, which ProfilePrint notes are “arguably subjective”.

Driven by AI, ProfilePrint is a predictive and prescriptive profiler. The company’s portable analyzer and cloud-based SaaS platform provides real-time analysis of molecular signatures from the field to provide data-driven insights, and to predict outcomes at the point-of-use within seconds. This ability has the power to redefine transaction standards, allowing sellers and buyers to determine the agreed-upon quality of ingredients digitally, fast-tracking existing assessment processes, and fostering an ease of trade from the field to the end-buyer.

Furthermore, this ability will reduce costs to consumers, create a fair, equitable, objective, and rapid solution for producers, and help companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

Over the past six months, Cargill has successfully completed pilot programs with ProfilePrint that have validated an array of practical applications of this disruptive technology across its ingredients portfolio, including ingredients such as chocolate and cocoa – results that ProfilePrint stated will work to establish cocoa as a strong vertical, following sold traction in coffee, and adding to its other verticals in tea, grains and oilseeds, herbs and spices, liquids, food additives, and dairy.

“ProfilePrint’s digital food fingerprinting technology holds the potential to transform the global food ingredient supply chain, strengthening the sensory innovation capabilities of our ingredient portfolio without compromising on taste and quality,” said Francesca Kleemans, managing director, Cargill’s Cocoa and Chocolate business, Asia Pacific. “This can help Cargill deliver against our high standards for food quality and enable faster and more precise product development for our customers.”

In June 2021, ProfilePrint was selected as the winner of the Cargill Health Through Nutrition Award – an acknowledgment added to a list of numerous other awards that include winner of the National Innovation Challenge for Supply Chain Resilience 2020 in Singapore, the International Grand Champion of Vietnam Startup Wheel 2021, and second runner-up at the International Suzhou Jinji Lake Startup Competition 2021 in China.

This investment by Cargill signals even further confidence in ProfilePrint’s deep technology, which has been deployed in more than 26 cities across North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Together, through this partnership, they will accelerate the company’s strategic goal of establishing a common digital standard for the food ingredients industry based on its fingerprinting technology.

“Cargill continues to strengthen our solution and accelerate our vision of establishing ProfilePrint as the industry’s digital standard for food ingredients globally,” commented Alan Lai, CEO and founder, ProfilePrint.

“Our solution allows users to ascertain the agreed quality of food ingredients in an online transaction, saving time and money by transforming the current onerous process of sending samples for physical checks. We enable our clients to co-create a sustainable ecosystem with their partners to overcome the challenges of supply chain risks, while increasing their competitive edge for growth and resiliency.”

~ 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.

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