Using AI to Help Grocers Eliminate Food Waste
Industries
AI/ML, AgTech,
Logistics, Software
Tech & TOOLS
AWS, Azure, Node JS, Python, Airflow, Postgres, Snowflake, SFTP, Kubernetes and more
Teams & Services
DevOps, Back-End, Front-End, ML, Microservices, Dashboarding
milestones
Fast Company World Changing Ideas
2022: Signs Albertsons, Cub, Winco
2023: World’s #1 FreshTech Business
Industry
AI/ML
IT
Information Services
Tech & TOOLS
Node JS, Python, Azure, AWS, Postgres, Redis, Cloudflare, ML, Kubernetes and more
Teams & Services
Google Cloud Solution Architects, Backend Engineers, FrontEnd Engineers, Designers, Project Manager
milestones
Forbes 50 AI Companies to Watch
2022 Acquired by Discord
In the heart of San Francisco, a visionary trio had a bold idea: to harness the power of AI to combat the $18B global issue of fresh-food waste.
The goal
Grocery stores are losing billions of dollars every year from food waste and under-stocking. Afresh’s mission is to use AI and algorithms to prevent food from ending up in landfills, make fresh food accessible to all and build a better fresh-food ecosystem.
The challenge
Afresh’s dream was built on a monolithic architecture and supported by a single beta customer. As company founders soon discovered, scaling up a dream is as challenging as building one. With their disruptive innovation, Afresh quickly caught the eye of one of the world's largest grocers. The ink had barely dried before the team recognized that their monolithic architecture, a seemingly adequate solution for their initial operations, was woefully unsuitable for a $10M enterprise.
To cater to the increased demand and new complexities, Afresh needed to transition from a monolithic architecture to a more flexible, scalable microservices structure. They also needed additional data, DevOps and frontend support to enhance and expand their offerings. And they needed it fast.
The solution
Recognizing the urgency and size of the challenge, Loka partnered with Afresh to provide the necessary support. Loka engineers embarked on a series of major backend and frontend initiatives, leveraging machine learning to mine deeper insights from customer data and addressing scaling issues with Amazon S3. Their aim was clear: to give Afresh the agility it needed during this critical phase of hypergrowth.
“Loka was instrumental in the very early days of Afresh and has continued to be a trusted partner as we continue our journey.”
What we delivered
Loka's partnership with Afresh resulted in a comprehensive re-architecting of the platform, shifting it from a monolithic structure to a microservices one. This transformation not only ensured Afresh's ability to cater to its rapidly growing customer base but also allowed it to adapt to changing needs and technologies more swiftly.
Loka’s support didn't stop there. It continued assisting with everything from machine learning projects to dashboard API integration. Our contributions were instrumental in scaling up Afresh's original offering and facilitating the company’s transition from a small startup to a leading player in the AgTech industry.
The results
In just four years, Afresh expanded from a team of three to become the world's leading fresh-technology company, with a customer roster that includes WinCo, Albertsons, Basha’s and more.
lift in chain-wide sales on average
decrease in food waste
by stores using afresh
decrease in out-of-stocks
by stores using afresh
Afresh’s timeline to industry leader
Afresh
founded
Raises $1M
seed round
Signs Fresh Thyme Market
Raises $6M
Series A
Fast Company World Changing Ideas
Signs Save Mart Companies
Signs Alberton’s
Signs WinCo
Raises $115M Series B
“In my 20 years running grocery businesses, I have honestly never seen a tool that is so easy for the store teams to use for fresh food ordering. The KPIs they are delivering are truly game changing.”
