NEW YORK, NY - Unfortunately, food waste in our industry is often unavoidable. However, it seems as though everyone involved is working to collaborate on a solution. The new “Software as a Service” platform, Crisp, has narrowed in on the issue and today announced the availability of its software for beta testing, intended to reduce food waste while increasing profitability. This follows the onboarding of 30 customers—who have a range of $15M to $10B in revenue—during the alpha stage of the platform.

“We have learned a tremendous amount after meeting with hundreds of food suppliers and retailers,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder. “Their feedback has informed our approach to create a solution that will simply integrate with their business operations, delivering clear and actionable insights. We will be consolidating complex data inputs into value-based solutions that offer a significant ROI.”

According to a press release, Crisp was established to create fresh and actionable business insights that address points of inefficiency throughout the supply chain, from forecasting to staffing and campaign analytics. BCG reported that 1.6 billion tons of food worth about $1.2 trillion goes to waste annually, so this forecasting comes at a crucial time in the food supply chain. Crisp’s forecasting helps to eliminate over-ordering that causes food waste and reduces out-of-stocks, ultimately leading to increased profitability.

"As an alpha partner for Crisp's forecasting platform, we have been impressed by the responsiveness of the Crisp team and their interest in truly understanding our business needs and goals," said Gary Pfeiffer, Executive Vice President of Superior Farms. "We appreciate that Crisp prioritizes ease of use and look forward to utilizing its platform to optimize our supply chain and reduce waste."

The company believes that at the root of food waste is a lack of efficient communication between food suppliers, retailers, and distributors, caused by an IT infrastructure that is often cumbersome, prone to human error, and siloed. Crisp aims to consolidate every byte of data to generate more reliable and automated sales forecasts that can then be used to drive better, more efficient operations across the food chain.

In September, the company announced a $14 million Series A funding round that was led by FirstMark Capital, along with Spring Capital, Swell, and HDM LLC. Crisp’s new platform will be available for general availability in Q1 2020.

I have no doubt that this is the beginning of a solution to the food waste problem we are all up against. To find out how Crisp’s new software impacts the supply chain, keep reading AndNowUKnow.

Crisp