climate change
climate change

climate change

SHOPPING

Afresh Secures $115 Million in Series B Funding and Rolls Out its Fresh Food Technology to Thousands of Stores Across the US

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Afresh, the leading AI-powered fresh food technology provider, today announced a $115 million Series B funding round led by Spark Capital and with participation from Insight Partners, VMG Partners, and Bright Pixel Capital. Walter Robb, senior executive partner at S2G Ventures and former Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market also joins the round. All prior investors, including Maersk Growth, High Sage, and Innovation Endeavors also participated in the round, bringing the company’s total funding to $148 million.

Afresh team

Afresh team

Afresh will use the investment to expand the footprint of its Fresh Operating System, an efficient, flexible solution for forecasting, inventory, ordering, and store operations, to support new fresh categories like meat and bakery. The funding will also be used to grow Afresh’s team and expand internationally to Europe.

“Food, more so than anything else, shapes the health of people and our planet. We founded Afresh with the purpose of eliminating food waste and making nutritious food more accessible. We’re thrilled to use this capital to expand the scale and scope of our Fresh Operating System,” says Matt Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Afresh.

Aiming to serve 10% of U.S. grocery stores by the end of 2022, Afresh tripled its customer base in 2021, signing regional chains like CUB and national chains like Albertsons, with plans to roll out to more than 2,300 Albertsons stores by the end of 2022. On average, stores using Afresh reduce food waste by 25% or more. They also see a 2-4% increase in top line revenue growth and have a 40% or more increase to their produce operating margin.

“The transformative results that Afresh provides are not only seen in grocers’ bottom lines, but also extend to the impact on our planet through the

… Read the rest
BEAUTY

Honduran couple become climate migrants | National

TIJUANA, Mexico — With its cheery unicorn printed case, Ana Morazan’s iPhone contains all that’s left of what she calls her “other world,” referring to her middle-class life before back-to-back hurricanes destroyed her home in Honduras.

There are glam shots of the 42-year-old with blond, salon-styled hair, impeccable makeup and cocktail dresses. And pictures of her as a home health aide in her white medical coat, smiling proudly as a professional who owned her home and was living debt-free.

The comfortable life she built from years of hard work and sacrifice disappeared in a span of two weeks when she became part of the estimated 1.7 million people displaced by the hurricanes Eta and Iota that pummeled Honduras and Guatemala in November 2020.

Morazan and her boyfriend, Fredi Juarez, who moved in with her during the pandemic, say they fell into debt trying to rebuild Morazan’s home and then started getting threats. The couple has been on the move ever since and are currently living in a tent at a crowded Tijuana shelter.

People are also reading…

The photos and videos in Morazan’s iPhone both console and torment her. They remind her of who she was and what she had, giving her hope of getting there again, but also serving as evidence of how quickly it was wiped out from the storms that led to her becoming a migrant.

She wipes a tear as she watches a video she recorded of the destruction near San Pedro Sula. In the video, she scans each room of her once spotless home, painted a bright lime color, and now splattered in dirt. Then she stares into the camera and says: “All I have is mud and more mud and more mud.”

The couple said since leaving, they have been

… Read the rest