Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, other investors included investors Initialized Capital and Haystack Ventures.
Cloud-based supply chain streaming platform Silo has raised a $9 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include investors Initialized Capital and Haystack Ventures. This brings its total funding to $12 million since launching in 2018.
San Francisco-based Silo is hoping to help streamline the food supply chain to mitigate food waste. Although loss happens throughout the supply chain from the farm gate to consumers’ kitchens, Silo finds the production and distribution segment particularly wasteful.
“The market potential for an innovator like Silo to reduce waste and improve margins is enormous and we’re excited to support its efforts as the system of record for food distribution in the United States,” said Anish Acharya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in a statement announcing the funding. “Silo is well-positioned to scale beyond the west coast to help more customers modernize and transition their operations from pen and paper to software.”
The round came together organically at the end of last year, according to co-founder and CEO Ashton Braun. And while there are a plethora of food waste start-ups in the market, Braun believes that investors understand the enormity of the problem and are not bored of it.
Its goal is to replace traditional systems with advanced technology to mitigate the loss of products and product rejections.
“We have built a lot of software to help a lot of folks. It digitizes workflows to make sure that all the internal systems and processes that they’re trying to run are connecting and communicating,” Braun told AFN. “From there, we were able to allow them to use data to make better decisions and have more time to manage operations more efficiently.”
Silo’s cloud-based online platform is accessible anywhere for growers, distributors, and suppliers in the perishable food system. Using machine learning-powered tools, it can automate operations and manage relationships between buyers and sellers. This includes retailers, wholesalers, distributors, food service companies, packers, processors, and freight providers. It also helps users discover new partners throughout the supply chain in real-time.
