PROPRIETARY A.I. SOFTWARE OPTIMIZES THE ENTIRE FRESH FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AND REDUCES FOOD WASTE

SAN FRANCISCO, September 16, 2019, 8:30 a.m. PDT — Afresh Technologies, a company developing technologies specifically built for the unique complexities of the multi-trillion-dollar global fresh food industry, announced it has completed a $6.1 million Series A round of financing. Innovation Endeavors led the investment round with participation from existing investor Baseline Ventures. The investment will help the company expand its sales and marketing efforts, accelerate implementations with existing partners, launch new products, and enable team growth across these key areas. The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for Afresh, which saw a growing customer base and the rollout of its technology to its first customers.

Afresh Technologies is the first company to develop A.I.-powered software that optimizes the entire fresh food supply chain. The company’s breakthrough technology is its Fresh Replenishment software, an in-store solution that uses artificial intelligence to manage the complex nuances of fresh food. The result is a faster, more efficient supply chain, more intelligent grocery inventory management for fresh foods, less food waste, fewer stockouts, and fresher food on the consumer’s plate.

Afresh is addressing the enormous industry problem that is fresh food management across the entire supply chain. Poor management of the fresh food supply chain results in expensive losses for grocers, which rack up $20 billion of losses due to food waste in the U.S. annually, and contribute to immense amounts of food waste because one-third of all food is thrown away each year. Afresh’s mission is to reduce food waste and make fresh, nutritious food available to all by injecting the fresh food supply chain with cutting edge technology. Early implementations of Afresh technology have resulted in a 25-45% reduction of in-store food waste.

"Afresh has its sights set not just on grocery store shelves, but on all the players that handle food -- distributors, producers, restaurants, and more. By deploying its advanced machine learning platform broadly, Afresh aims to help the entire value chain be less wasteful and more profitable while providing healthier and fresher food to all," said Scott Brady, Partner at Innovation Endeavors. Brady is also joining the Afresh Board of Directors.

Afresh began as a Stanford research project between the three and was founded as a company in 2017. The company has headquarters in San Francisco and was founded by Matt Schwartz, Nathan Fenner, and Volodymyr Kuleshov.

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Innovation Endeavors is helping entrepreneurs drive a super evolution of industry. We invest in visionary founders, transformational technology and emergent ecosystems for a new world. The firm has a presence in three major regions of innovation: Silicon Valley; Tel Aviv; and New York City. Investments include: CommonSense Robotics; Freenome; Planet; Plenty; SoFi; Uber; and Zymergen. Learn more at www.innovationendeavors.com.