PLEASANTON, Calif.,
Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
SafeTraces, Inc. announced today that it closed a $10 million equity financing round. The round was
led by S2G Ventures (Seed to Growth), a leading multi-stage
investment firm focused on the food and agriculture industry, and
Bunge Ventures, the venture capital arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG)
("Bunge"), a leading global agribusiness and food
company. Other participants in the round included UL Ventures
as well as Spero Ventures.
"We are excited to close this round with the support of such an
outstanding group of investors," said Anthony Zografos, Founder and CEO. "The growing
demand for our suite of food safety solutions provides both
validation and direction for our future growth."
The company intends to use the proceeds from this round to scale
the deployment of its solutions platform, sales, and marketing.
SafeTraces plans to launch its second food safety solution,
SaniTracers™, by the end of this month.
"Given how complex the food system has become, it was expensive
and nearly impossible for manufacturers and retailers to trace the
source of their ingredients," said Chuck
Templeton, Managing Director, S2G Ventures. "Now with
SafeTraces, they can trace a product, not only back to the grower,
but to the lot or batch, giving them confidence they are getting
what they ordered."
"Traceability of food and feed ingredients is an increasingly
important issue for participants all along the value chain," said
Nanda Kumar Puthucode, Managing
Director, Bunge Ventures. "The
digital bar code technology of SafeTraces provides source
transparency at the physical product level, helping strengthen
value chain integrity."
"The SafeTraces technology can be used to help ensure
sustainable sourcing, protect brands from adulteration and fraud,
and facilitate rapid resolution of food borne illness outbreaks,"
added Simin Zhou, VP & Managing
Director of UL Ventures. "The technology has broad applicability to
commodities ranging from fresh produce and grains to oils and
fibers."
The SafeTraces suite of on-food safety solutions uses FDA
approved, food grade DNA technology to provide complete on-food
traceability and sanitation verification. SafeTracers™ - invisible,
edible, flavorless, digital DNA barcodes - are applied directly on
or with food, enabling producers, processors and distributors to
trace the food, not the just packaging. Coupled with a
blockchain or centralized code registry system, SafeTracers™
establish an unbreakable, scalable, cost-effective link with the
physical object. SafeTracers™ are read anywhere in minutes,
providing an immutable, invisible way to protect product against
adulteration, fraud, and intentional substitution.
SaniTracers™ are food-grade pathogen surrogates that are used in
food processing and plant and equipment sanitation to verify that
sanitation was performed as planned. SaniTracers™ deliver results
on-site and in minutes, enabling processors to improve food safety
and reduce foodborne illness and inventory costs.
About SafeTraces
SafeTraces provides the only on-food safety solutions that protect
producers, processors, and consumers. We are committed to providing
complete low-cost solutions that deliver results in minutes. Our
traceability solutions enable customers to gain full transparency
into origin, protect their brand, and reduce processing and recall
costs. Our sanitation verification solutions provide insight into
the effectiveness of sanitation on-site and in minutes.
SafeTraces was founded in 2015 and has grown into an expert team
of entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers dedicated to improving
the food safety industry. SafeTraces' technology is
patent-protected.
Learn more about SafeTraces at www.safetraces.com
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/safetraces-raises-10m-in-equity-financing-300732839.html
SOURCE SafeTraces, Inc.