The funding round was led by agtech investor TELUS Ventures, the strategic investment arm of TELUS corporation, along with new investors Rethink Impact, Citi Impact, Doon Capital, Stardust Equity and Portfolia Food & AgTech Fund as well as existing investors Spark Capital, Cultivian Sandbox, Astia Fund, Radicle Growth and others.
Full Harvest said it plans to use the funding to further build out its online marketplace, advance its data and market insights offerings, and triple its technology and product team in 2022.
The San Francisco-based food waste tech company has partnered with some of the largest food and beverage companies, processors, and growers (Danone North America, Health-Ade, SVZ, Tanimura & Antle, Church Brothers, and Deardorff Farms), by helping move their produce supply chain online where other companies can purchase their surplus. Along with diverting food that would have gone to landfills, the business model lowers food production costs and creates an additional revenue stream for farmers, explained Full Harvest.
"The importance of building more sustainable businesses has never been more evident, especially for those in the food and beverage space. By sourcing produce online through Full Harvest and selecting fruit for our products that would otherwise have gone to waste, we are answering the growing consumer demand for more sustainable food options," noted Surbhi Martin, vice president Greek Yogurt and Functional Nutrition, Danone North America.
In 2020, Full Harvest tripled its revenue due to the food industry's desperate need for more flexible, transparent supply chain solutions. Recently, the company hit a major milestone of selling more than 50 million pounds of surplus and imperfect produce.
"With its strong leadership and mission-driven approach, combined with our growing expertise in the AgTech space, Full Harvest is well-positioned to evolve the produce market and drastically reduce food waste by leveraging data and technology to digitize what is still a very analog market. We look forward to helping the team scale the company and transform the industry to the benefit of farmers, buyers, and the environment," said Mario Mele, vice president Corporate Strategy, TELUS Ventures.
"Dedicated to empowering 'full harvests' with zero food waste to support a more sustainable ag ecosystem, we are transforming a fragmented and opaque offline produce supply chain into a flexible, transparent, reliable solution by directly connecting growers with processors and food and beverage brands online," added Christine Moseley, founder and CEO of Full Harvest.
"With the influx of capital, we plan to build on our incredible customer successes and expand into new markets to make the global produce supply chain more efficient and sustainable."
