Silo, a cloud-based platform for streamlining supply chains in the perishable food system, announced that it has raised a Series A round of $9 million in new capital, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Additional participation in this round was secured from existing investors Initialized Capital and Haystack Ventures. Anish Acharya, a general partner at a16z who focuses on financial services, joins Silo’s board.
Food waste and loss occur at all stages of the system, but are particularly heavy in production and distribution. Silo’s mission is to empower the food system by minimizing waste and work for one of the most critical supply chains in the United States. The startup offers a cloud-based online platform that is accessible anywhere for both growers, distributors and suppliers in the perishable food system. Silo provides powerful tools based on machine learning technology that automate operations and manage relationships for the buyers and sellers of food products and agricultural commodities. It offers an intelligent solution for stakeholders to discover new partners up or down the supply chain in real-time.
Silo will extend its reach beyond wholesale produce towards meat, dairy and pantry items within the overall food category this year. The company rolled out a successful beta program in 2019 with a focus on the west coast. With this new funding, it will accelerate its nationwide growth by opening new offices in New York City and Los Angeles and hire engineering staff to support the development of financial services and logistical tools.
“Eliminating inefficiencies in the food system is crucial, especially in these uncertain times. We’re thrilled to have the support of an amazing group of investors to help us grow Silo’s business to new categories and markets across the nation. Our team is rapidly expanding and we’re excited to maintain this momentum as we start working with more stakeholders across the country,” said Ashton Braun, co-founder and CEO of Silo.
Silo supports businesses so that they can run more efficiently and digitally, in turn building a modern and sustainable food system. It replaces traditional systems with real-time, cloud based technology that reduces unnecessary costs and waste, such as loss of products & product rejections, and manual processes around data entry, sales, logistics, business intelligence and financial services. By leveraging data and supporting both buyers and suppliers in the food system, Silo creates thousands of connections across retailers, wholesalers, distributors, food service companies, packers, processors and freight providers that help them transact and avoid billions of dollars of loss each year. Silo’s machine learning technology automates traditional workflows across a business and the supply chain as a whole, from sales, purchasing, dynamic inventory management, logistics, accounting & finances, helping stakeholders build and de-risk existing and new relationships within the supply chain.
“The market potential for an innovator like Silo to reduce waste and improve margins is enormous and we’re excited to support its efforts as the system of record for food distribution in the United States,” said Anish Acharya, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Silo is well-positioned to scale beyond the west coast to help more customers modernize and transition their operations from pen and paper to software.”
