April 13, 2021

photo credit: Hazel Technologies

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media 

Hazel Technologies, a Chicago-based startup focused on mitigating food waste by extending the shelf life of produce, has closed on a $70 million Series C co-led by Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund (Pontifax AgTech) and Temasek.

The oversubscribed round, which brought total funding for the company to more than $87 million,  was also backed by new and returning investors S2G Ventures, Pangaea Ventures, Rhapsody Venture Partners, Asahi Kasai Ventures, Jordan Park Group, and the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. 

“Food waste is an economic, environmental, and social disaster,” said Shannon Bergstrom, Recycle Track Systems, in her article Food Waste: How the Agriculture Industry Can Help, published in GAI News in October 2020. “In the United States alone, nearly 40 million tons of food is thrown out every year, which equates to around 40 percent of all produce in the U.S. food supply. Much of this waste is created at the consumer and retail stages, but a significant amount of produce is also lost in the production and post-harvest stages.”

Founded in 2015, Hazel’s technology works at the harvest stage in the form of drop-in food packaging inserts called sachets that are placed in boxes of bulk produce by growers at time of harvest. These sachets release an active, shelf-life enhancing vapor that can extend the shelf-life of fresh produce by up to three times by preventing fungus and decay.

“If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas contributor on the planet, behind the US and China,” said Aidan Mouat, CEO, Hazel Technologies.

“Since the very beginning at Hazel Tech®, we have focused on developing technologies that easily integrate with the existing supply chain to reduce waste. We believe this financing will allow us to commercialize our successful solutions holistically from producers to consumers on a global scale.”

Named a World Changing Idea for 2020 by Fast Company, Hazel’s novel solutions are designed to work within both food supply and distribution chains as they currently exist, positioning the company to work alongside many of the largest agribusinesses in the world to dramatically reduce food waste and realize larger profits. With this funding, the company is planning to build global operations in major agricultural producing regions, and to expand into new markets including Southeast Asia, Africa, the EU, and beyond.

“Pontifax AgTech is thrilled to co-lead the Series C investment in Hazel Technologies and partner with management to drive the next phase of growth,” said Tim Bluth, vice president,  Pontifax AgTech. “The Company’s novel solutions reduce food waste across the supply chain, and dramatically broaden access to quality, perishable foods for retailers and consumers worldwide. By addressing inefficiencies in the supply chain, we expect to realize positive environmental and economic impacts on our food system, a key thematic focus for Pontifax AgTech.”

This year, Hazel Technologies projects that its supply chain solution will be used to preserve more than 6.3 billion pounds of fresh product, preventing more than 500 million pounds of food from going to waste. And by the end of the year, the company forecasts that it will have saved nearly 1 billion pounds of produce since its founding.

“Truly, this is a world-changing idea because food waste is not just a human tragedy but an environmental tragedy, adding gigatons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year,” said Jeremy Grantham, Trustee, Grantham Environmental Trust.

“In the next century, as food demand continues to grow, agricultural resources become more stressed, and climate change accelerates, solving food waste will become critical. We believe Hazel’s technologies will be an integral part of that global solution.”

Currently, Hazel Technologies is working with more than 160 companies throughout 12 countries including Mission Avocado, the largest distributor of fresh avocados in the world; Zespri, the biggest kiwifruit distributor in the world; and Oppy, the largest produce distributor in Canada.

“Hazel’s products stand out,” said Carsten Boers, managing partner, Rhapsody Venture Partners. “They require no additional infrastructure, expensive machinery or training of staff. Use of the inserts is simple and low cost. Together with the superb efficacy in keeping produce fresh, this makes Hazel a winner with growers, packers, and retailers all over the world.”

– Lynda Kiernan 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 Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.