Foodforecast, a German AI startup within the meals retail market, has raised over €3 million in funding. The spherical was led by Scalehouse Capital and Future Meals Fund II, with further assist from their present VC traders, Blue Horizon Ventures and Aeronaut Make investments, and different strategic traders. This funding shall be used to scale their operations and increase their footprint throughout the European meals retail market.
Since its Go-to-Market in 2022, the corporate’s AI-driven gross sales forecasting options have been utilised in a number of thousand buyer shops and have been adopted by among the business’s largest gamers, resembling SSP Germany. Foodforecast specialises in optimising your complete meals provide chain, starting on the Level-of-Sale (POS).
By leveraging technological developments, Foodforecast permits its clients to automate ordering and manufacturing processes by a mean of over 90%, equaling greater than 20 million automated orders inside a 12 months, which considerably reduces the burden on employees and has change into the primary promoting level for its clients. Nonetheless, the discount of meals waste stays the corporate’s important driver, which may be diminished by as a lot as 30% on common, whereas on the similar time rising gross sales by as much as 11%.
AI towards meals waste
“We’re on a mission to avoid wasting €10 billion value of meals waste inside the subsequent 10 years,” mentioned Justus Lauten, CEO and founding father of Foodforecast. “In 2023, we not solely saved 4,000 tons of meals waste but additionally prevented the annual CO2 equal of over 1,000 vehicles and conserved greater than 2,500 Olympic swimming swimming pools’ value of contemporary water. The backing from our traders is a strong endorsement of our imaginative and prescient and the large market potential we’re tapping into. This infusion of capital will allow us to increase our staff and proceed delivering unparalleled predictive capabilities and repair high quality to our purchasers within the gastronomy, bakery, and retail sectors.”
Meals waste shouldn’t be solely an financial challenge but additionally considerably contributes to the degradation of planetary well being. The pointless lack of meals takes its toll on invaluable sources resembling water, power and land, and it’s a main driver of greenhouse fuel emissions that gas local weather change. Given these pressing issues, discovering revolutionary options to fight meals waste is crucial. By deploying their AI-driven options, Foodforecast helps their clients optimize their useful resource utilization whereas making a vital contribution to defending our planet and making certain a sustainable future.
Silla Scheepens, Companion at Future Meals Fund, highlighted the strategic significance of Foodforecast’s know-how: “Foodforecast is on the intersection of superior know-how and significant influence. Their AI-driven options not solely handle among the most urgent challenges within the meals business, but additionally ship important environmental and financial advantages. The mixture of their technological innovation with a robust give attention to sustainability makes them a game-changer out there, incomes the belief of quite a few high-profile purchasers throughout varied sectors.”
The spherical additionally noticed participation from a number of business consultants turned early-stage traders, related to among the most distinguished meals service firms within the DACH market, resembling Subway®, dean&david or Bäckerei , Göing seit 1920.
