Full Harvest, a marketplace for excess produce that would otherwise go to waste, has closed an $8.5 million Series A round of financing led by Spark Capital.
Other investors included Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, Rent the Runway founder Jenny Fleiss and Jon Scherr (CircleUp).
San Francisco-based Full Harvest aims to fill gaps in the food system by applying its technology and a new supply chain model to change how the food industry manages surplus produce.
Through its marketplace for the sale of surplus and imperfectly shaped produce, the firm has helped firms sell and deliver “almost seven million pounds of produce”.
It now aims to use the funding to achieve its mission of eradicating food waste at the farm level by further scaling its technology platform, expanding its US footprint and tripling the size of its technology, sales and operations teams.
Full Harvest CEO Christine Moseley said: “We need to move beyond the archaic nature of buying and selling produce to get the most from each harvest and make sure no food goes to waste. Our marketplace will drive a waste-free future on produce farms that benefits growers, food and beverage companies, and consumers.
“Using this investment to expand nationally and roll out new platform capabilities and produce offerings, Full Harvest will get more produce directly from farms to food and beverage producers – faster, fresher, more affordably and with advanced traceability.”
Spark Capital investor John Melas-Kyriazi said: “An astounding amount of produce is wasted today in the United States, but the intuitive and beautifully designed Full Harvest online marketplace is starting to change this dynamic and is already delivering dramatic business benefits for its customers.
“By aggregating excess produce supply at scale and providing a superior user experience to growers and food buyers via software, Full Harvest is shifting the way the industry thinks about how produce is bought and sold.”
Dan Phillips of Cultivian Sandbox Ventures added: “Full Harvest delivers measurable benefits to all stakeholders. Farms gain access to a new profit centre and buyers achieve convenience and cost savings, all while meeting growing consumer demand for sustainably sourced food products.”
The investment comes a week after Sweden’s Karma secured $12 million in a Series A funding round as it aims to lead efforts to reduce food waste across Europe.
Karma is a marketplace that enables restaurants and grocery stores to reduce food waste by selling unsold food at a discount direct to consumers.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2023
