AI-Startup Foodforecast Secures €3M to Revolutionize Food Retail, Cutting Waste by 30% and Expanding Across Europe
Cologne, September 2024
Foodforecast, a Cologne-based AI-startup in the food retail market, has successfully completed an equity round, raising over €3 million in funding. The round was led by Scalehouse Capital and Future Food Fund II, with additional support from their existing VC investors, Blue Horizon Ventures and Aeronaut Invest, and other strategic investors. This significant investment will propel Foodforecast’s plans to scale their operations and expand their footprint across the European food retail market.
Revolutionizing the Food Industry through AI
Since Go-to-Market in 2022, Foodforecast has established itself as a technology leader within the German food retail sector. The company’s AI-driven sales forecasting solutions are now utilized in several thousand customer stores and have been adopted by some of the industry’s largest players, such as SSP Germany. Foodforecast specializes in optimizing the entire food supply chain, beginning at the Point-of-Sale (POS). By leveraging technological advancements, Foodforecast enables its customers to automate ordering and production processes by an average of over 90%, equaling more than 20 million automated orders within a year, which significantly reduces the burden on staff and has become the main selling point for its customers. However, the reduction of food waste remains the company’s main driver, which can be reduced by as much as 30% on average, while at the same time increasing sales by up to 11%.
Food Waste: A Threat to Planetary Health
Food waste is not only an economic issue but also significantly contributes to the degradation of planetary health. The unnecessary loss of food takes its toll on valuable resources such as water, energy and land, and it is a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. Given these urgent concerns, finding innovative solutions to combat food waste is imperative. By deploying their AI-driven solutions, Foodforecast helps their customers optimize their resource usage while making a critical contribution to protecting our planet and ensuring a sustainable future.
“We are on a mission to save €10 billion worth of food waste within the next 10 years,” said Justus Lauten, CEO and founder of Foodforecast. “In 2023, we not only saved 4,000 tons of food waste but also avoided the annual CO2 equivalent of over 1,000 cars and conserved more than 2,500 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of fresh water. The backing from our investors is a powerful endorsement of our vision and the enormous market potential we are tapping into. This infusion of capital will enable us to expand our team and continue delivering unparalleled predictive capabilities and service quality to our clients in the gastronomy, bakery, and retail sectors.”
Investment from Industry Leaders
The funding round was led by Scalehouse Capital, a German venture capital firm with a focus on efficient software start-ups, along with Future Food Fund II, a Dutch AgriFoodTech environmental impact investor. Silla Scheepens, Partner at Future Food Fund, highlighted the strategic importance of Foodforecast’s technology: “Foodforecast is at the intersection of advanced technology and meaningful impact. Their AI-driven solutions not only address some of the most pressing challenges in the food industry, but also deliver significant environmental and economic benefits. The combination of their technological innovation with a strong focus on sustainability makes them a game-changer in the market, earning the trust of numerous high-profile clients across various sectors.”
The round also saw participation from several industry experts turned early-stage investors, associated with some of the most prominent food service companies in the DACH market, such as Subway®, dean&david or Bäckerei ,,Göing seit 1920”. This will allow Foodforecast to benefit from deeply rooted industry know-how and a wide-ranging network for further growth and expansion.
