Pymwymic invests in revolutionary technology to fight food loss
Pymwymic is pleased to announce its third investment in the Healthy Food Systems Impact Fund II – OneThird – a front-runner in fresh produce quality assessments. The seed round of €2.75m alongside existing shareholders SHIFT Invest, Oost NL and Halma plc, will support OneThird in achieving its mission of enabling the prevention and reduction of food loss and waste by empowering smarter fresh produce supply chains.
Food waste and loss is an increasingly pressing issue; the United Nations has identified the topic as a major sustainability development challenge, with an estimated one third of all food produced for human consumption being lost or wasted every year. This not only has serious environmental consequences – accounting for 10% of global CO2 emissions and 25% of our fresh water being used to grow food that is never eaten – but also economic and social impacts, including higher food prices and reduced food security. 40% of this wastage is fresh produce, items which have varying shelf life, can spoil within days and which currently rely on a first in first out method of distribution across the supply chain.
To tackle this, OneThird has developed a scanner which allows growers, food distributors, retailers and shoppers to predict the shelf life of fresh produce in order to make informed decisions across the supply chain to minimise food waste. OneThird’s scanner currently supports and predicts the shelf life of tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries and avocados, and will extend towards other types of produce, including grapes, bananas and mangos in late 2023. OneThird’s technology will empower supply chains to become smarter, more dynamic, transparent and equitable, which will help to reduce the amount of food lost / wasted and get more produce to the right place at the right time.
“The funding will allow us to accelerate the implementation of OneThird’s technology beyond our initial customer base, expand internationally and increase the impact we can create for our customers to help them generate higher ROI, and also meet their sustainability and ESG goals.”
Marco Snikkers, OneThird Founder
Solutions such as OneThird’s are vital in supporting the EU’s mission under SDG 12.3, to halve food waste by 2030. The investment will enable the company to further expand their available produces alongside building and embedding its impact strategy to empower the smart supply chains of the future.
“Increasing food security is key to supporting a growing population; we’re excited by the possibilities OneThird’s technology presents in tackling the alarming quantities of global food loss across the supply chain.”
Sophie Pickering, Pymwymic Investment Manager
Read the full press release here
About OneThird
OneThird is on a mission to address a €1 trillion annual problem — reducing the loss of one-third of all food produced worldwide. OneThird’s food tech solutions for growers, distributors and grocery retailers allow for high-accuracy shelf life prediction of produce at any stage of the supply chain — ensuring the right product gets to the right place at the right time. Using passion and creativity, OneThird delivers meaningful solutions to improve sustainability efforts, feed those in need, and save customers money.
Founded in 2019 in a digital incubator for FTSE 100 company Halma plc [LON:HLMA], and based in Enschede, The Netherlands, OneThird is a privately held company backed by impact investors Pymwymic, SHIFT Invest and Oost NL. Follow OneThird on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or learn more at https://onethird.io. Access the OneThird press kit here.
For questions, please contact Sophie Pickering at sophie@pymwymic.com
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