April 12, 2017

Full Harvest, a San Francisco-based agtech platform designed to mitigate food waste at the farm level, announced it has closed on a $2 million round of funding led by Wireframe Ventures, Radicle, BBG Ventures, Early Impact Ventures, Impact Engine, and a field of angel investors including Astia and Joanne Wilson.

Food need and agricultural production are both immense in scope, however the dynamics of how they interplay are often frustrating. Given global population growth trends, as much as 50 percent more food will need to be produced to feed a world of nine billion people by 2050. However, an astonishing 40 percent of all food in the U.S. goes to waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and more food ends in landfills than any other type of waste according to the NRDC.

Full Harvest aims to mitigate food waste, providing a solution through its B2B platform that connects large farms to food and beverage companies. Through its proprietary technology, Full Harvest is closing gaps in the food chain, and is creating a new food chain model and new revenue channels through which farmers can sell surplus or cosmetically imperfect produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.

“At Full Harvest, we want to turn the fruits and vegetables that would traditionally be wasted into a win-win for every player in the food supply chain,” said Christine Moseley, founder and CEO of Full Harvest. “Our goal is to be the Alibaba of produce – a universal, easy-to-use platform that allows growers, food and beverage companies, and retailers to all benefit from excess farm produce.”

Maiden Investment

This investment also represents the first investment made by Radicle – a $15 million ag and food tech accelerator backed by Finistere Ventures, Bayer Crop Science, DuPont Pioneer, and OurCrowd.

Radicle partners with innovative entrepreneurs and innovative initiatives in the food and ag chain, and using its proprietary platform, adds value to ideas to transform them into growing businesses that rapidly reach commercialization. The accelerator makes significant $500,000 investments in each of its companies, and provides operational services and access to valuable strategic partnerships from its wide-ranging platform network of academic and public/private research institutes.

Gaining Traction

Solving issues associated with agricultural and food waste is becoming a more common theme among agtech and food tech startups and their investors, as the stakes of not doing so become increasingly critical.

In November of last year, Boston-based agtech startup, Spoiler Alert, announced the closing of a $2.5 million seed round led by Acre Venture Partners. Other investors include the Fink Family Foundation, Valley Oak Investments, LaunchCapital, Fresh Source Capital, and FTW Ventures.

“Every year, upwards of 40 percent of the nation’s food supply is wasted – reducing bottom lines, squandering opportunities to drive down food insecurity, and damaging the environment,” said Spoiler Alert co-founder and CEO, Ricky Ashenfelter in a company statement.

Up to 40 percent of food produced, processed, and transported in the U.S ends up never being eaten, according to Feeding America, and more food finds its way to landfills and incinerators than any other type of municipal solid waste – a loss that represents a fiduciary hit of $218 billion to U.S. farmers, businesses, and consumers each year, according to ReFED.

Founded in 2015, Spoiler Alert’s agtech technology platform operates similarly to that of Full Harvest, acting as a facilitator for agribusinesses and food producers to find connections through which they can either donate or sell their unsold surplus food or organic matter.

In November 2016, the startup launched its online Marketplace, a business to business, and business to non-profit communication portal that more than 200 organization across the New England region have joined to date. Since its launch, the Marketplace has maintained a consistent growth rate for membership of 15 percent per month.

Additionally, earlier this year Spoiler Alert launched Enterprise – a subscription-based service that assists businesses in fully capitalizing upon available tax deductions for donating food. This includes item-level traceability and advanced reporting dashboards that can give insight and provide traceability for a business’ level of food waste, community impact, and potential tax benefits.

Full Plans

Full Harvest states that it plans to use the capital from this investment to help lead the way for the produce value chain to become waste free in the future. Through its Marketplace, Full Harvest plans to continue to make new revenue streams that will result in lower food production costs, while also conserving resources.

“Excessive food waste creates an enormous burden on our society, economy, and environment. With the knowledge and technology we now have at our fingertips, no food should go to waste,” said Moseley.

“All elements of the food chain need to be examined to find ways to reduce waste,” said Ann M. Veneman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. “Full Harvest is leading the way to address food waste at the farm level by using technology to create large-scale, market-based innovation.”

-Lynda Kiernan

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.