AI Grocery Platform Afresh Raises $34 Million

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass">SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;span><&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; Afresh&comma; the AI platform for grocery&comma; has raised &dollar;34 million in new funding to accelerate its expansion&period; The round was co-led by Just Climate&comma; the specialist climate-led investment business set up by Generation Investment Management&comma; and High Sage Ventures&comma; with participation from all major investors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Every day&comma; billions of decisions determine how food moves through the grocery supply chain&colon; what to order&comma; how much to stock&comma; and what to produce&period; In a &dollar;10 trillion global industry built on perishable inventory and razor-thin margins&comma; those decisions are made under constant pressure&comma; often across fragmented systems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Technology helped with shelf-stable goods&period; It couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help with broccoli or salmon fillets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fresh food operates differently&period; Shelf life is measured in days&period; Demand shifts with weather and seasons&period; Inventory data is incomplete and constantly changing&period; Traditional retail systems were not built for this&period; This creates an industry-wide challenge to balance availability and waste&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Afresh&&num;8217&semi;s AI platform brings real-time intelligence to these decisions&comma; from store-level ordering to distribution center buying&period; Built first for fresh&comma; Afresh developed AI designed for short shelf life&comma; unpredictable demand&comma; and imperfect data&period; That foundation now extends across the full grocery enterprise&comma; including center store&comma; frozen&comma; and general merchandise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;ve spent nearly a decade building AI to solve the complexity of grocery&comma; and we&&num;8217&semi;re now seeing that approach scale across the industry&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Matt Schwartz&comma; CEO and Co-Founder&comma; Afresh&period; &&num;8220&semi;The decisions AI makes in grocery aren&&num;8217&semi;t about optimizing pixels on a screen — they&&num;8217&semi;re about physical products with shelf lives measured in days&comma; moving through a supply chain that feeds billions of people&period; Our platform orchestrates those decisions at scale&comma; so buyers&comma; store teams&comma; and merchandisers can spend less time on routine execution and more time on the strategy and judgment that drive outcomes&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Afresh is live in more than 12&comma;500 departments across 40 states&comma; partnering with leading grocery retailers including Albertsons Companies&comma; Meijer&comma; and Wakefern&period; Its platform supports merchandising&comma; store operations&comma; and supply chain teams in improving in-stock rates&comma; reducing waste&comma; and strengthening margins&comma; enabling retailers to achieve measurable results&comma; including up to a 25&percnt; reduction in shrink&comma; a 3&percnt; sales lift&comma; and a 7&percnt; improvement in inventory turns&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This new capital will accelerate that expansion&comma; supporting broader deployment across retail partners and continued investment in next-generation AI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In grocery&comma; food waste is a business problem before anything else&period; An estimated 30–40&percnt; of food is wasted across the broader food system&comma; driving lost sales&comma; margin erosion&comma; and excess inventory&period; The decisions retailers make about what to order and stock ripple upstream — determining what gets grown&comma; processed&comma; and transported across the entire food system&period; Getting those decisions right is one of the highest-leverage interventions available to reduce waste and emissions at scale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Food waste is one of the most critical and overlooked drivers of emissions in the food system&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Libby Spalding&comma; Director at Generation Investment Management&period; &&num;8220&semi;Afresh&&num;8217&semi;s AI platform strengthens the demand signal at the retail and distribution center levels&comma; which have outsized upstream consequences&period; The results mean stronger margins for retailers and lower emissions for the system&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To date&comma; Afresh has helped prevent more than 200 million pounds of food waste&period; Afresh continues to advance a clear premise&colon; better decisions drive better outcomes — for retailers&comma; for consumers&comma; and for the global food system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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