Freshflow, an AI platform for grocery supply chains, has raised £5.5m in fresh funding to help boost its efforts to eliminate supermarket food waste.
Freshflow says its platform is uniquely tailored for fresh produce and allows buying teams “to swap unreliable intuition-based ordering for just-in-time, lean and efficient fresh food supply chains”.
It claims it can reduce waste by over 20% and deliver a revenue boost of between 2% and 5%.
Freshflow will use the capital to expand into adjacent fresh categories such as dairy, meat, and bakery, as well as launch new capabilities for distribution centres.
It also plans to grow its 24-person team to 50 by 2026 and continue its geographic expansion across Europe.
Freshflow has so far partnered with several European supermarket chains including Carrefour, Edeka, and Intermarché.
Avik Mukhija, a machine learning scientist, started the company in 2021 after spending several months on the shop floor as part of a placement for his Master’s degree.
“We’re seeing incredible demand from retailers, because we offer the first AI in Europe specifically built for the needs of their fresh departments,” said Mukhija, who now acts as the company’s CEO.
“Having now proven our system across a large number of stores… demand from retailers is accelerating further.”
Bastien Gelin, CEO of one of Carrefour’s largest French franchisers, Groupe Yabe, said Freshflow is now deployed across all its stores.
“We have been working with Freshflow’s AI for nine months. Thanks to the application and Freshflow’s team, we have radically improved our process in the fresh produce departments. We have seen strong results: more inventory turns, less waste and more freshness.”
The fundraising round was led by World Fund, Capnamic and Venture Stars.
No comments yet