Invafresh, a company that provides AI and machine learning demand forecasting, merchandising, replenishment, and sustainability and compliance for food retailers, has acquired Whywaste, an end-of-life product platforms for grocery retailers and convenience stores.
The move will accelerate Invafresh’s growth and extend the functionality of the company’s AI and machine learning-enhanced Fresh Retail Platform by leveraging Whywaste’s advanced date checking, markdown price optimization, and donation platform capabilities.
“I’m excited to welcome Whywaste as part of the Invafresh team and look forward to working with them to expand the global footprint of our combined Fresh Retail platform offering,” Tim Spencer, CEO at Invafresh, said in a statement. “Throughout the due diligence process, I was impressed by both the caliber of talent at Whywaste and the quality of their products. That talent and product quality has allowed Whywaste to establish themselves at the forefront of the rapidly growing sustainability movement by enabling grocery retailers to profitably reduce food waste.”
The acquisition comes as food waste has become a major issue globally, amounting to 1.3 billion tons of food valued at $1 trillion lost or wasted annually. Without more action, food waste is expected to grow 70% by 2050. The issue has become a focus for many environmental-focused companies, including Rubicon Technologies, which recently revealed in its 2023 Corporate Citizenship Report it helped one of the largest U.S. supermarket chains divert over 141,745 tons of materials from landfills in 2022. Other companies, such as Denali, are focused on processing and recycling food waste into compost, animal feed, energy, and fertilizer.
Whywaste, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, works with ASDA, Tesco One Stop, SPAR International, and Coop Sweden, to help reduce food waste, maintain regulatory compliance, and increase profitability. According to Whywaste, its customers on average realize 30% less waste and a 17% increase in revenue from optimizing discount pricing on its platform.
“We estimate that U.S. food waste totaled more than $650 billion in 2022, based on $1.25 trillion of food and beverages purchased for off-premises consumption combined with an estimate that 35% of food goes unsold or uneaten,” John Harmon, senior technology analyst at Coresight Research, said in a statement. “Sixty-three percent of grocery retailers view food waste reduction as very important in meeting corporate sustainability goals. The addition of Whywaste’s suite of waste reduction tools to Invafresh’s AI-enhanced demand forecasting capabilities could help retailers achieve those goals.”
Invafresh sees the addition of Whywaste — and the merger of their two platforms — as beneficial to grocery retailers to drive revenue, reduce shrink, deliver a better shopping experience for customers, and help achieve sustainability targets.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.