Afresh

CEO @afreshai

Afresh builds AI software that helps grocery retailers make the operational decisions that move fresh food from farm to shelf, including how much to order, what to price, and which items to carry. The platform is aimed at grocery chains running fresh departments like produce, meat, seafood, and deli, where shelf life is measured in days and demand shifts with weather, seasons, and promotions. Afresh is live in over 12,000 store departments in 40 states , and this launch marks a $34M round co-led by Just Climate, the climate-focused strategy of Generation Investment Management, and High Sage Ventures, with participation from existing investors . The company was co-founded in April 2017 by Matt Schwartz, Nathan Fenner, and Volodymyr Kuleshov , with Schwartz and Fenner having met at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where Fenner wanted to apply his engineering background to a mission-driven startup . Schwartz leads as CEO and Fenner serves as Chief Product Officer. Their argument is that standard retail forecasting tools were designed for stable SKUs with predictable pack sizes, which breaks down for perishable categories where a strawberry or a salmon filet behaves nothing like a shelf-stable UPC. The timing matters because grocers are shifting from AI pilots to wider deployments across store operations, and Afresh has used the past year to expand from one flagship ordering product to six enterprise solutions covering store and distribution center workflows. The company reports having helped prevent more than 200 million pounds of food waste to date , which is the thesis investors like Just Climate are underwriting. The new capital is earmarked for scaling deployments with retail partners and extending the platform deeper into supply chain decisions.

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