ZX Ventures

Automation and robotics are finally creating solutions for the complexities of doorstep deliveries.

Last-mile Delivery Automation

Starship Technologies operates an electric last-mile delivery droid called “Starship,” designed to traverse pedestrian sidewalks bearing small loads. Starship’s droids can carry a payload of around 22 lbs and can travel at a maximum speed of 3.7 mph covering a radius of roughly 4 miles (10 miles in a single charge). The droids are equipped with cameras, GPS, ultrasonic sensors, radar, and other mapping techniques for autonomous navigation.The company is headquartered in the US, with engineering offices located in Estonia and Helsinki, Finland. As of February 2024, the company has operations across 60 locations in the US and Europe (including the UK, Estonia, and Finland) and is one of the most prominent startups in the industry and one of the first companies to commercially test a working droid. As of February 2024, its robots had completed 6+ million autonomous deliveries to commercial customers. The company also reported having around 2,000 active droid units in operation as of December 2023.Key customers and partnershipsIn the US, Starship operates its delivery droids at around 50 university locations, as of February 2024, mostly conducted in partnership with US foodservice providers at universities including Sodexo, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7">Aramark,</a> and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13638">Grubhub.</a> Its operations in the UK are conducted in partnership with companies such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/43">Tesco,</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17089">Co-op,</a> Plenish, and Costa Coffee. Other deployment partners in Europe included Estonian supermarket chain Selver, Finnish grocery chain <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9730">Alepa,</a> Finnish retailer <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18237">S Group,</a> and Estonia-based ride-hailing and food delivery startup <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19575">Bolt.</a>Starship also has product collaborations with companies including <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15436">TEAL</a> to obtain connectivity solutions for its droids (December 2022), The Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Company to test airless tires (January 2022), and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7944">Veriff</a> to incorporate identity verification services to deliver age-restricted items (January 2022).&nbsp;Funding and financials<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26279">In February 2024,</a> Starship Technologies raised USD 90 million in a funding round co-led by Plural and Iconical, to expand geographically, introduce a robot manufacturing scheme with an undisclosed partner, and further invest in its software and logistics services.

The on-demand economy has finally reached white collar work.

Online Freelancing Platforms

<div>
 
 Catalant Technologies is a freelancer marketplace providing expertise in consulting services. The platform connects organizations with independent talent from top consulting firms such as McKinsey, PwC, Deloitte, and Accenture. It offers data and business analytics, technology and digital services, marketing, corporate strategy, market research, finance, and accounting. In 2020, the company announced the launch of its SaaS platform, &ldquo;Catalant Platform,&rdquo; which assists organizations in managing freelancer projects.
 
 
 Catalant&rsquo;s marketplace has a pool of more than 70,000 experts and more than 1,000 consulting firms, with over 10,000 experts from Fortune 500 companies. Its customers include over 35% of Fortune 1000 companies and seven of the top 10 private equity firms by assets under management. The platform experienced double-digit YoY growth in average project size in 2020 for categories such as supply chain (49%), market research (30%), finance and accounting (24%), and corporate strategy (17%).&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21396">
 August 2023
 </a>
 , Catalan partnered with Acropolis Advisors to offer strategic consulting services to C-suites of public and private companies.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In March 2021, the company announced&nbsp; that it raised USD 35 million in a funding round led by Morningside Group. The fresh funds were earmarked&nbsp; to meet the increased demand for independent talent.&nbsp;
 
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A new wave of meat, fish, and poultry alternatives are driving this hyper-growth industry into the mainstream.

Plant-based Meat

<div>
 
 Planetarians produce upcycled alternative vegan meat by utilizing spent yeast from commercial fermentation facilities and combining it with plant proteins (soy flakes). The alternative protein product is sold as a meat block and can be used as a substitute for ribs, steak tips, meatballs, shredded beef, and more. Planetarian products are sold through food service channels such as catering services, food trucks, and other hospitality channels.
 
 
 The company operates a pilot facility in Hayward, California, and has already conducted several trials with hospitality and food service clients and plans to expand to Italy and across the US.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16463">
 February 2023
 </a>
 , the company raised USD 6 million in a seed II funding round led by Mindrock to finance the commercial production of its two-ingredient, whole-cut, patented plant-based protein and to open a full-scale production facility for its first commercial agreements.
 
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Using online platforms, autonomy, electric and fuel-cell tech solutions to shape the future of trucking.

Truck Industry Tech

Founded by logistics industry veterans, Leaf Logistics offers an AI/ML-based transportation platform that connects shippers, carriers, and brokers to facilitate efficient freight movement, reduce empty miles, and secure stable rates. Leaf Logistics offers key products such as the “Adapt” technology for shippers to obtain a forward-looking view of truckload capacity requirements with recommendations, and <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16589">“Flex Fleets,”</a> a multi-shipper dedicated trucking fleet operating across several regions in the US. Flex Fleets is an extension of Leaf’s freight-matching platform and leverages the company’s Leaf Adapt technology to analyze, track, and coordinate shipper data. The company focuses on forward planning and coordination, scheduling freight months in advance to optimize logistics operations and minimize waste​.The company charges a subscription for Adapt and a transactional fee for loads contracted through its Flex program.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsLeaf Logistics’ customers include Sage Freight, AB InBev, Solvay, Summit Eleven, and Owens Corning.

Tech solutions for achieving global anti-wastage targets

Food Waste

Planetarians produces upcycled high fibre and high protein ingredients from defatted sunflower seeds—a waste by-product from sunflower oil extraction.Planetarians also partnered with Barilla in March 2019 to make chips from up-cycled ingredients and to test the production of dough-based products such as pasta bread, biscuits, tortillas and crackers. Planetarians plans to expand to Italy and across the US.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16462">February 2023 </a>, the company raised USD 6 million in a seed II funding round led by Mindrock to finance the commercial production of its two-ingredient, whole-cut, patented plant-based protein and to open a full-scale production facility for its first commercial agreement.

Planetarians is a Climate/FoodTech seed stage company from the US focused on affordable and healthy plant-based proteins through ingredient innovation.  Featured on the cover of Alt Meat Magazine, COP 28 and TechCrunch.

The Duchess is an alcohol-free beverage company. They produce a variety of non-alcoholic, artisanal beverages, including botanical gin and tonic, botanical spritz, and more. It is crafted with aromatic botanicals, orange peel, and a refreshing tonic.

Super Coffee provides pods, grounds, creamer, espresso, and coffee. They allow consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. The company was created to target health-conscious consumers seeking sugar-free bottled beverage.

EverGrain Ingredients is a sustainable ingredient company providing food and beverage-based protein and fiber barley ingredients. EverGrain was introduced in 2020, it is committed to realizing the untapped potential of barley. Their partnerships ensure they have access to a stable, global supply of nutrient-dense barley, and our innovative processes allow them to capture the full potential of this existing natural resource to fulfill their commitment to the planet’s health and longevity.

Appbar is a mobile application that offers to deliver beer, distillates, wine, and snacks.

Daniel Lourenço is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer of GHOST Lifestyle

Sempre em casa is a online platform which offers different kinds of beer, wine and spirits.

Catalant is a software company that provides global enterprises with software solutions to access business expertise on demand.  The company helps more than 30% of the Fortune 100 get from strategy to execution faster, with software that helps businesses accelerate mission-critical work and more than 65,000 experts and 1,000 firms who help them deliver it. Catalant platform is designed to enable the process of strategy execution, starting with entering in a business’ most important strategic objectives, aligning work and breaking it down into distinct elements, accessing and deploying needed internal and external resources, collaborating to execute it, measuring the work’s value, and providing insights to keep improving how it all gets done. It has built a global network of more than 27,000 boutique firms, custom teams, and independent experts, as well as best-in-class software tools for engaging and managing this market. Catalant is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and serves customers around the world.

Zé Delivery is a beverage delivery company that has grown, evolved, and expanded its operations in the beverage market, adding different business units from the Direct to Consumer ecosystem, such as Empório da Cerveja and Chopp Brahma Express, thus becoming Ambev's consumer platform. The company was established in 2016 and is headquartered in So Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

New Wave Soda provides soda, sparkling water, sparkling fruit juice, direct store delivery, and natural food services. They also offer natural soda with natural ingredients. Additionally, they also provide added sugar and artificial sweeteners.

As global compliance regulations, carbon-neutral commitments, and supply chain disruptions rise, multinational companies face unprecedented hurdles and risks to growth. We help our customers stay ahead of global business shifts & risks and drive profits through real-time traceability insights — on a single platform. BanQu is a traceability solution that helps companies: 1. Prove sourcing compliance with auditable data down to the source. 2. Strengthen supply chain resilience through source-to-shelf insights 3. Track impact with quantitative procurement and ESG reporting

Drinkworks is a online platform which offers different types of wine, spirits, cocktails and accessories.

Pensa is a leading innovator in changing the way brands and retailers manage retail shelf inventory. Pensa’s data-as-a-service portfolio and use of advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence enable CPG brands and retailers to reduce stockouts and boost revenues by delivering highly accurate real-time visibility of the store shelf at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. Pensa partners with top CPG brands and retailers globally, including Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Circle K, and Unilever to address a trillion-dollar “blind spot” at a critical time in the industry.

Leaf Logistics is creating a multi-party network of shippers, carriers, and logistics service providers. Leaf builds technologies for members to participate in this network and plan, coordinate, and execute their transportation logistics more effectively. Today, the product suite includes the Leaf Adapt platform for shippers to build antifragile transportation plans, Leaf Flex forward contracts that lock in value for shippers and carriers alike, and the Leaf Network, where efficiency scales with multi-party network moves.

RateBeer is a portal, review, and social network for all things beer.  Its mission is to provide independent information about beer and breweries for beer hobbyists and regular folk alike.

Brew Lab Tea creates all-natural loose leaf tea blends, carefully crafted in NYC. Founded in 2013, by tea sommelier Jennie Ripps and Maria Littlefield, Owl's Brew sells two product lines. Owl's Brew Mixer, tea-based craft cocktail mixers, and Owl's Brew Boozy Tea.

Paranoid Fan is a social mapping application used by teams and brands to drive mobility around venues.

Starship Technologies is a robotics company building fleets of self-driving delivery robots designed to deliver goods locally within 30 minutes. The robots drive autonomously 99% of the time to make safe and environmentally friendly curb-side deliveries from a local hub. They also offering people convenient new services that improve everyday life. Starships Technologies robots are equipped with a sensor suite that includes cameras, GPS, and inertial measurement units. The company's aim is to fundamentally reshape how goods are shipped and delivered, and make local delivery, ultimately, free. It also enables a new era of instant delivery that works around your schedule at much lower costs. Starships Technologies was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Rappi is a consumer tech company that specializes in providing online delivery services. It connects consumers who want to purchase prepared foods, groceries, clothes, and virtually anything with independent contractors who can fulfill those needs.

Analytical Flavor Systems’ AI-driven Gastrograph platform helps packaged food companies achieve greater success in a saturated food industry that has an over 80% failure rate. Gastograph moves CPG brands’ development process beyond traditional tasting panels; it surveys each product with a flavor profile engine that is predictive, anticipating how new foods will perform in different markets, over a long time horizon, and against various demographic archetypes. Food companies are struggling to launch new products in an era of rapidly shifting consumer tastes, and an AI-driven platform like Gastrograph gives big food a more accurate map with which to navigate into the future.

Protes markets Protes, packets of protein chips that come in four flavors: spicy chili lime, tangy southern BBQ, toasted coconut, and zesty nacho.  Protes markets their products through their online platform and stores.   Protes was Foods was founded in 2013 and is based in Brooklyn, New York.

ZX Ventures is brewing up the future. ZX Ventures are a global disruptive growth group, incubator and venture capital team backed by one of the largest multinational companies in the world, Anheuser-Busch InBev. ZX Ventures is focused on innovation in/around the beverage category.

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