Apeel Sciences Announces $250M in New Financing to Improve the Resilience of the Fresh Food Supply Chain and Fight Global Food Waste
SANTA BARBARA, CA - Apeel Sciences all-star investor roster just became even more starstruck. In addition to Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry—fellow Santa Barbara natives—GIC has stepped up to back the burgeoning food pioneer after leading a $250 million funding round in new financing.
“We are proud to team up with GIC to help create a better future with less waste,” said James Rogers, Founder and CEO of Apeel Sciences. “Food waste is an invisible tax imposed on everyone that participates in the food system. Eliminating global food waste can free up $2.6 trillion annually, allowing us to make the food ecosystem better for growers, distributors, retailers, consumers, and our planet. Together, we’re putting time back on the industry’s side to help deal with the food waste crisis and the challenges it poses to food businesses.”
The raised capital will further enable Apeel to continue tackling the food waste problem on a global scale, helping the innovator hurtle toward its goal of saving 20 million pieces of fruit from going to waste at retail stores in 2020. In addition, the funding round will also keep Apeel on track to extend the shelf-life of more fresh produce categories in order to solve the problem of food waste in consumers’ homes and create a more sustainable supply chain.
Additional participant investors in Apeel’s recent funding round also included Viking Global Investors, Upfront Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and Rock Creek Group, with Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry serving as minority, non-participatory investors.
“I hate to see food wasted, when there are so many people in the world who are going without,” said Winfrey. “Apeel can extend the life of fresh produce, which is critical to our food supply and our planet, too.”
And, in this new COVID-19-shaped world, Apeel’s groundbreaking technology is also helping to extend value and increase operational flexibility for suppliers and retailers by safeguarding the food supply and introducing more time, access, and freshness across the supply chain, according to a press release.
For more information on Apeel’s latest funding round and its global plans, click here. And for more exciting fresh produce news like this, stick with us at ANUK.
