Cleveland Avenue invests in seed-stage, early-stage, later-stage, and growth-stage deals focused on food and beverage companies, lifestyle consumer brands, AgTech, and technology companies.

Cleveland Avenue

Melitas Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in early stage food & beverage companies through the entire value chain, focusing on better-for-you food & beverage products.

Melitas Ventures

Monogram Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused exclusively on consumer and retail companies. The partners have invested more than $1.4 billion of equity capital primarily in consumer and retail businesses. Leveraging best practices and relationships from leading institutions, bring elite investing and advisory experience to the lower middle market. In partnership with management teams, the firm focuses on developing the next generation of category leaders by providing flexible capital, deep domain knowledge, and access to transformative industry relationships.

Monogram Capital Partners

Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) is the strategic investment platform within Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), dedicated to driving growth for values-aligned companies in the hospitality and technology sectors. EHI leverages the businesses and professionals of USHG to identify growth potential and investment opportunities in both internal and outside ventures.

Enlightened Hospitality Investments

PreciTaste AI

PreciTaste is a first-to-market AI kitchen management software solution to optimize operations in foodservice brands with over 2,500 Food AI  systems deployed. Our market-proven solutions guide crews to prep, plan for and cook precise amounts of food based on predicted demand using proprietary deep tech, vision sensing, and AI assistance - all relayed through screens in the kitchen. A long-term leader in Restaurant AI with the most applications at scale, PreciTaste has developed plug-and-play software assistants to digitally manage key operations, like prep and order fulfillment, as well as full self-management solutions utizing computer vision to automate cooking to needs and order accuracy. Standalone or combined, our market-ready products work to drive productivity in the back-of-house and profit for our customers at a rapid pace.  With 10+ years in food AI applications, 80+ engineers and seven foodservice categories served, PreciTaste is leading the charge in AI automation through our suite of core products all developed to directly address the major labor and food challenges the industry is facing today.   Series A growth funding is led by Melitas Ventures and Cleveland Avenue, LLC and includes Enlightened Hospitality Investments (EHI) and Monogram Capital Partners.

Based in New York, PreciTaste offers an AI-powered platform that optimizes operations at restaurants and minimizes food waste. PreciTaste’s in-store food software platform uses its proprietary “Vision AI” technology secured by over 40 patents. The platform helps restaurants in a range of tasks including tracking orders, order forecasting, demand forecasting, and managing inventory levels.

Tech solutions for achieving global anti-wastage targets

Food Waste

PreciTaste

Based in New York, PreciTaste offers an AI-powered platform that optimizes operations at restaurants and minimizes food waste. PreciTaste’s in-store food software platform uses its proprietary “Vision AI” technology secured by over 40 patents. The platform helps restaurants in a range of tasks including tracking orders, order forecasting, demand forecasting, and managing inventory levels.The software is stated to provide demand forecasts that are 95% accurate for up to two weeks in advance. The company claimed that its order accuracy guidance features allow restaurants to serve customers 5x faster and increase EBITDA by 100% by accurately ordering, staffing, and reducing food waste. The company’s aim is to offer its solution as a standard for digital food AI management in fast casual and quick-service restaurant (QSR) kitchens. As of&nbsp;October 2024, PreciTaste’s prep-monitoring system had been installed in&nbsp;over 3,700 food AI systems.As of October 2024, the company operates its business beyond the US with a presence across Germany and India. In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15755">January 2023</a>, the company launched a range of off-the-shelf products: Prep Assistant, Planner Assistant, and Station Assistant, to assist workers in mid-sized quick-service restaurants and fast casuals and ensure instant labor efficiency and expedite profitability.Key customers and partnershipsFor further product development&nbsp;in August 2022, PreciTaste partnered with<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3615559-1&amp;h=2936667056&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.franke.com%2Fus%2Fen%2Ffs.html&amp;a=%C2%A0">&nbsp;</a>Franke Foodservice Systems, a leading foodservice solution provider supporting major restaurant chains in implementing kitchen and equipment improvement campaigns. Via the partnership, PreciTaste users are to be provided with further insights when implementing the PreciTaste software solution.&nbsp;

Apeel Sciences is a California-based food technology company that produces edible coatings made of plant materials that extend the lifetime of fruits by 2x–3x to prevent food wastage in regions where refrigeration is scarce.&nbsp;The coatings are intended for use on fruits and vegetables, with a primary focus on avocados, apples, mangos, cucumbers, and citrus fruits.&nbsp;According to the company, US retailers that used Apeel experienced a 50% reduction in waste alongside a 5%–10% growth in sales on average. As of&nbsp;April 2024, Apeel Sciences reported to have saved&nbsp;over&nbsp;60 million pieces of produce from going to waste at retail stores by partnering with small family-owned farmers, local organic growers, grocery stores, and large food brands.&nbsp;As of October&nbsp;2024, the company was offering its solution to a network of 30 suppliers and 40 retailers across eight countries, including the US, UK, Spain, Netherlands, and Kenya. The company focuses on expanding its market presence across North America and the EU.In May 2020, Apeel announced plans to expand to Sub-Saharan Africa, Central, and South America—all regions where food wastage was increasing.&nbsp;Following this, Apeel expanded to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022 and began its expansion to South America in 2024.In May 2021, Apeel Sciences acquired&nbsp;the&nbsp;startup Impact Vision for an undisclosed amount. Impact Vision’s technology allows suppliers to see inside their fresh produce and ultimately reduce post-harvest loss and optimize distribution while continuing to extend shelf life.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;Apeel has partnered with various distributors for the distribution of its avocados, including The Kroger Company in September 2018 for Cincinnati, Calavo Growers in January 2021, and Nature’s Pride for Europe in March 2021.&nbsp;The company also collaborated with Topline Farms in February 2023 for the development of the Apeel-Protected Mini Cucumber and licensed its coating technology to Limoneira in May 2023 for use on lemons.&nbsp;

Apeel Sciences

Shelf Engine provides demand forecasting tools,&nbsp;which leverage AI and machine learning, for perishable food items to reduce inefficiencies in the ordering system and minimize overall costs. According to Shelf Engine, more than 30% of highly perishable foods in grocery stores such as meat and vegetables expire before the sell-by date. Shelf Engine’s scan-based trade (SBT) technology guarantees sales and pays for any items that remain unsold. Via the SBT, Shelf Engine manages orders, pays vendors, and only charges the retailer for what sells while still paying suppliers for their full order and increasing its accuracy over time. Shelf generates revenue by charging a markup on the product from the vendor to the retailer.As of October 2024, Shelf Engine operated in more than 3,000 grocery stores and claimed to increase profit margins by more than 50% by reducing food waste by as much as 32%.&nbsp;Shelf Engine also reported that it prevented 5.2 million lbs of food wastage, decreased 8,200 tons of CO2, and saved 500 million gallons of water.Key customers and partnershipsIn January 2024, Shelf Engine partnered with Dollar General to implement fully automated AI-powered ordering for produce, aiming to enhance inventory management and reduce food waste across Dollar General's stores. This collaboration would leverage Shelf Engine's technology to optimize ordering processes and improve the freshness of perishable items.Shelf Engine also worked with supermarket and grocery chains Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Walmart, Ralphs, Harmons, and Bi‑Rite to manage orders and reduce food waste.

Shelf Engine

Afresh began as a research project in 2017 to develop AI-powered software that optimizes the entire food supply chain. Specifically, the company offers an in-store solution for grocery stores that applies artificial intelligence to manage the freshness of food. According to the company, the implementation of its technology has led to a 25%–45% reduction of in-store food waste and increased gross margin of fresh produce sales by 4 percentage points. The company generates revenue under a SaaS model. In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16835">March 2023,</a> the company expanded into fresh departments, including meat, seafood, deli, and food service.As of&nbsp;October 2024, the company’s technology was deployed across 3,000 stores in 40 states in the US and it reported that it was able to triple its customer base in 2021.&nbsp;Afresh also reported that it prevented 44 million lbs of food wastage as of 2024 while reducing 24 million kg of CO2 emissions and saving 886 million gallons of water.Key customers and partnershipsSome of Afresh's key customers include Fresh Thyme Market, WinCo Foods, and Heinen’s. In 2019, the company also reported that it had established partnerships with three US grocery chains, each with more than 100 stores in operation.&nbsp;&nbsp;The company also collaborated with Bashas’ Supermarkets Inc. (a chain of grocery stores based in North America with over 100 stores) in September 2021 and New Season Market (a chain of 19 privately owned grocery stores) in October 2021 to pilot the “Afresh AI-driven software solution” at selected stores.In December 2022, Afresh partnered with SpartanNash to pilot the AI-powered Afresh platform at 10 of SpartanNash’s Family Fare grocery stores.&nbsp;&nbsp;In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15786">January 2023</a>, Afresh and Albertsons Companies announced the completion of an enterprise rollout of the Afresh predictive ordering and inventory management platform.&nbsp;Afresh also partnered with Albertsons Companies again in October 2024 for the launch of Afresh DC Forecasts, where Albertsons was its first customer.

AFresh

UK-based Winnow Solutions identifies and measures waste in commercial kitchens. The company records the reason for the waste, calculates the value of the wasted food, and keeps track of this data in the cloud. The company’s self-titled product shares technology with autonomous vehicles, using cameras to record and learn about food being wasted and calculate the financial and environmental cost of this discarded food. Winnow Vision also provides a Waste Monitor solution to help kitchen staff track how and what food is wasted to adjust their spending on food ingredients and eliminate overproduction.As of October 2024, Winnow Solutions reported that it had annually saved over 50 million meals, reduced 87,000 tons of CO2, and saved USD 70 million for customers.Key customers and partnershipsWinnow’s customers include the catering company&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5386">ISS</a> and hotels such as Accor, Fairmont, The Westin, Four Seasons, and Hilton Tokyo Bay.&nbsp;In September 2023, Winnow Solutions partnered with Ne’ma, the UAE’s National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, to support Ne’ma with data, benchmarking, and best practices for the hotels, restaurants, and catering (HoReCa) sector.&nbsp; Following this, Winnow was selected as a preferred food waste management vendor by Dayblink GPO in November 2023.

Winnow Solutions

Hazel Technologies is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded technology company that develops packaging that releases vapors that slow the aging process and prevent fungus or decay. Its solution is claimed to double the shelf life of produce. Hazel operates a B2B business that targets large enterprises. The company has reported treating&nbsp;5 billion lbs of produce as of October 2024, saving about 4 billion lbs from going bad. The company has a target to save one billion&nbsp;lbs of produce from going to waste by the end of 2021. Hazel operates in&nbsp;13 countries&nbsp;across the US, South America, and Europe, as of October 2024.&nbsp;Hazel works with around 250 food service and produce companies including the likes of Sysco, Mission Produce, Zespri, Calavo, and Oppy.&nbsp;As of October 2024, the company offers Hazel Endure, its antimicrobial packaging for berries, grapes, and other fruit, which uses an anti-fungal pad to extend the shelf life and quality of fruits and other produce.Key customers and partnershipsHazel Technologies has formed several partnerships to reduce food waste and extend the shelf life of various produce. These included collaborations with Mission Produce for avocados in July 2020, Migiva Group for grape trials in March 2021, Specialty Crop Company for figs and Symms Fruit for apples in May 2021, Oppy and Brar Farms for California-grown table grapes in July 2022, and Kliewer Farms for kiwifruit in November 2022.

Hazel Technologies

Startups that prevent food wastage by prolonging the lifetime of food or better managing food production through the supply chain. Companies that develop products such as sanitizers, containers, and machines that allow food to stay fresh longer are included here. Startups that develop algorithms to determine food preservation strategies are also included.

These startups ensure work to reroute surplus food to different sets of end-users including charity organizations and consumers seeking discounted items. This segment mainly consists of on-demand online platforms that connect producers, retailers, and restaurants with consumers via mobile app.

Startups that recycle food waste for industrial uses such as soil enrichment.

Startups that recycle food waste into edible food and beverages.

Solutions that keep food waste out of landfills

Recycling and upcycling food waste to keep them out of landfills

IoT-enabled waste prevention techniques for purposes such as longer shelf-life and inventory management

Waste prevention analysis platforms use AI/ML

PreciTaste

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