Hazel Technologies Closes $13M in Funding for Food Waste Reduction

Hazel Technologies, Inc., an agricultural technology company delivering new solutions to combat food waste, just announced $13 million in Series B funding, bringing the company's cumulative total raised to $17.8 million.

The Series B round was led by Pangaea Ventures, a provider of advanced materials venture capital, and S2G Ventures, a Chicago-based firm with investments across the food supply chain from soil to shelf. The oversubscribed Series B round also attracted new investors The Grantham Foundation and Asahi Kasei Ventures, which join returning investors Rhapsody Venture Partners, Serra Ventures, Valley Oak Investments, Climate Impact Capital, ImpactAssets and others.

"Pangaea is thrilled to lead this financing in Hazel," said Keith Gillard, general partner of Pangaea Ventures, in a statement. "Hazel has a deep understanding of their customers that we rarely see in a startup company. Their drop-in solution for a broad set of supply chain applications will allow Hazel to be a true change maker in food waste reduction across the supply chain."

Founded in 2015, Hazel's core technologies revolve around the release of active, shelf life-enhancing vapor from packaging inserts called sachets. The sachets are placed in boxes of bulk produce by growers at the time of harvest, extending the shelf life of produce up to three times by slowing aging in produce and preventing fungus or decay.

"This new financing brings in resources, both financial and strategic, that will grow Hazel from its current early commercial stage to become a profitable, world-leading provider of shelf life extension products," said Aidan Mouat, CEO at Hazel Technologies, in a statement. "We've delivered a solution that works both economically and environmentally, increasing efficiencies across the entire supply chain, and now we are able to roll these out to address food spoilage in multibillion-----dollar markets internationally." 

Since 2017, Hazel Technologies has completed more than 100 pilot trials for products ranging from melons to okra, apricots, avocados, cherries and more. Hazel Technologies said it intends to use its funding to continue the growth of its main product line and launch new technologies. The company will also seek to add new talent to the company (the average age of Hazel employees is 31 and more than 60 percent of the company is female).