• Spoiler Alert

  Participated · Series A · Dec 2021

  Spoiler Alert provides a B2B liquidation platform that enables food and beverage brands to digitize and manage excess, short-dated, and obsolete inventory across private networks of discount retailers and nonprofit channels. The software focuses on maximizing value recovery, strengthening customer relationships, and improving supply chain effectiveness for perishable consumer packaged goods. Its customers include major global CPG firms such as Nestlé, Kraft Heinz, Campbell Soup Company, and Danone North America. Over the past 12 months the company has seen adoption-driven growth, reporting over 400% growth in gross transaction value and zero customer churn. Spoiler Alert also enables opportunistic purchasing for discount retailers and emerging DTC grocers like Ollie's Bargain Barn and Misfits Market. The company plans to use new funding to expand its team, invest in platform enhancements to move more inventory through diversified channels, and support go-to-market efforts for product category diversification. Spoiler Alert offers a cloud-based software and services platform that enables item-level tracking, reporting of food recovery and waste diversion, and facilitation of donations, discounted sales, and organics recycling. The company integrates with enterprise resource planning and warehouse management systems to give organizations visibility into inventory indicators and reduce waste before products become landfill-bound. Customers include major food distributor Sysco and meal-kit company HelloFresh, with a reported trial that cut HelloFresh's supply-chain food waste by 65%. Spoiler Alert was born out of MIT in 2015 and is based in Boston. The team has launched an accelerator program, FoodTrack, focused on technologies that combat food waste. Management says newly raised proceeds will be used to build out product and engineering teams, expand customer success and business development, and strengthen the management team ahead of a planned Series A in 2019. Founded in 2015 and based in Boston, Spoiler Alert provides cloud-based enterprise software that connects food producers, logistics companies, food banks and pantries to reduce food waste. The platform helps producers track inventory they would otherwise discard, attain tax credits for donations, and sell surplus or "ugly" produce and near-spoilage goods to other businesses at discounted rates. Spoiler Alert positions itself as a secondary wholesale marketplace for food, enabling farms to sell imperfect produce to juice or soup makers and similar buyers. The company has worked with large food producers and farms, including a recent partnership with Sysco Corporation (Sysco reports roughly $50 billion in annual revenue). Spoiler Alert does not operate its own shipping but partners with for-profit and nonprofit organizations that provide temperature-controlled transport. The company plans to use funding to expand its services to food producers and nonprofits across every major U.S. metro area and to broaden support for diverting organic waste to uses like livestock feed or clean energy.

• Mori

  Participated · Series A · Jul 2020

  Mori uses a proprietary process that extracts natural silk protein with just salt, water, and heat to create a consumable coating that protects food and slows spoilage. The treatment is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing production processes with minimal or no additional capital expenditure. The technology is broadly applicable across fresh and shelf-stable food categories and, after extensive testing and trials with initial customers, Mori will soon launch its first commercial products in multiple segments. The company recently opened a silk protein manufacturing facility and moved its headquarters to Boston. Mori holds 25 granted patents, 35 utility applications, and trade secrets worldwide; Mori Silk™ is a dietary protein consumable in the USA, Mexico, and Costa Rica and listed as a Non-Novel and Traditional food ingredient in countries including Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Mori announced a $50 million Series B1 financing to support commercialization, product development, and geographic expansion. Mori uses a proprietary process that extracts protein from silk using just salt, water, and heat to form an all-natural, edible protective layer that can be applied to fresh and shelf-stable foods. The coating is designed to be undetectable, extend shelf life, add supply-chain flexibility, and reduce both food and packaging waste. Mori positions its technology for integration at any point from farm to shelf to help producers, processors, and retailers reach new markets and improve food access. The company emphasizes sustainability and equitable food access as core benefits of its solutions. Mori holds a substantial intellectual property portfolio—21 issued patents and 27 patent applications—backed by trade secrets worldwide. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate commercialization across categories and geographies, expand its product development pipeline, and bring multiple manufacturing streams online by the end of the year. Mori (formerly Cambridge Crops) extracts protein from Bombyx mori silk using a water- and salt-based process to form a natural, edible protective barrier applicable to whole and cut produce, meat, fish, and processed goods. The silk protein coating helps prevent oxidation, improve water retention, and slow microbial growth, which extends shelf life across multiple stages of the supply chain. The company has obtained Self-Designated GRAS status from an expert panel for its silk proteins, with further FDA and USDA certifications expected. Mori’s technology is protected by about 20 patents, 25 patent applications, and numerous trade secrets worldwide. The firm intends to scale manufacturing capabilities and pursue commercial partnerships across multiple food categories to reduce food waste and improve freight and market access. Mori is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Cambridge Crops develops a silk-powered, edible protective coating that slows gas exchange, prevents oxidation, improves water retention, and slows microbial growth to extend food shelf life. The solution is made from a protein extracted from silk via a water-based process and forms an imperceivable, tasteless layer when applied to food surfaces. The technology originated in Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto’s silk lab at Tufts and was co-invented with MIT Professor Benedetto Marelli. The coating has demonstrated efficacy across whole and cut produce, meat, fish, and other food products and can be integrated at wash or coating stations in the supply chain. Cambridge Crops intends to use the funding to complete FDA and USDA regulatory milestones, invest in production scale-up, and continue developing commercial partnerships in the food and agriculture industry. The company is based in Somerville, Massachusetts.

No current team members are available.