Brief - The Hustle

The anti-food waste startup now valued at $2B

Written by Juliet Bennett Rylah | Aug 24, 2021 6:44:20 AM

Avocados go bad so quickly that they’ve become a meme, but 1 company is using a special coating to change that.

Apeel Sciences is a California-based startup founded in 2012 through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It just raised $250m in Series E, bringing its valuation to $2B, per TechCrunch.

Founder James Rogers says Apeel uses “food to preserve food” in the hopes of reducing food waste — which the USDA estimates affects 30%-40% of food in the US.

But what is this coating?

It’s an invisible, odorless, tasteless “peel” made from ingredients already found in peels, pulp, and seeds.

Produce can be sprayed, brushed, or dipped in it.

The peel:

  • Seals in moisture
  • Keeps oxygen out
  • Helps food last 2x longer

Since 2019 Apeel has saved 42m pieces of produce from going to waste, conserving ~4.7B liters of water.

The new funding will help Apeel expand its supply and retail networks.

Currently, Apeel distributes produce through 40 retail partners, including Kroger, which announced it would sell Apeel avocados nationally in 2019.

Sounds pretty… Apeeling.