Loading organizations...
§ Private Profile · New York City, NY, USA
Phood is a company.
Phood has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round.
Key people at Phood.
Phood has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Phood develops an intelligent platform designed to combat food waste within commercial foodservice operations and retail environments. Leveraging computer vision, artificial intelligence, and integrated smart scales, the company’s technology meticulously tracks and analyzes discarded food. This system provides operators with actionable data, enabling them to optimize inventory, streamline preparation processes, and reduce waste.
The company was founded in 2015 by Luc Dang, who recognized the immense economic and environmental burden of food waste in large-scale food preparation settings. Dang envisioned a data-driven solution that could transform food waste from an intractable problem into an opportunity for efficiency and sustainability.
Phood primarily serves restaurants, cafeterias, and other prepared food operations seeking to enhance profitability and minimize their ecological footprint. The platform empowers these businesses to make informed decisions, translating waste reduction into improved bottom lines and more sustainable practices. The company aims to establish a pervasive standard for waste management across the foodservice industry, driving efficient food resource utilization.
Phood is a for-profit startup developing an AI-powered platform to prevent food waste at its source in commercial food businesses. It builds PhoodX, a hardware-software system combining a scale, camera, and computer vision to track waste, identify items, and deliver data-driven insights on overproduction, spoilage, and operational inefficiencies, serving sectors like grocery stores (e.g., Whole Foods), university dining halls (e.g., Yale, RISD), restaurants, healthcare, hospitality, and corporate cafeterias[1][3][4][5]. The platform solves the problem of unsustainable food supply chains—responsible for 8% of global GHG emissions—by cutting waste volume by 50%, reducing food costs by 8-10%, slashing tracking labor by up to 90%, and enabling ROI within 50 days through optimized menus, ordering, and production[1][3][4][5]. Operating as a SaaS model with subscription-based hardware, Phood has analyzed 1.8 billion pounds of food, secured partnerships like Amazon's Whole Foods, and raised $2M in seed funding, showing strong growth momentum toward brand expansion and underserved community impact[1][4][5].
Phood was founded by CEO Luc Dang, who identified the critical need to tackle food waste in prepared food operations like dining halls and grocery delis, where manual tracking is labor-intensive and waste drives up costs and emissions[3][4]. The idea emerged from recognizing that foodservice businesses lack detailed analytics to address root causes like overproduction or spoilage, despite thin margins making waste a top P&L issue; Dang's vision prioritizes source reduction over diversion for planetary impact[1][3]. Early traction came from pilots in high-volume settings: installations at Yale and RISD dining halls, Whole Foods locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, plus a $2M oversubscribed seed round co-led by New Stack Ventures and Story Ventures during the COVID-19 pandemic, funding expansion to "blue-chip" clients like Amazon[3][4]. This bootstrapped path from virtual fundraising to real-world deployments humanizes Phood's resilient execution amid global disruptions[4].
(Note: Search results also reference a separate "Phood Inc." focused on campus card payments for student dining via DoorDash partnerships, but core details align overwhelmingly with the food waste prevention company; the payment entity appears distinct or earlier-stage[2].)
Phood stands out in food waste tech through:
Phood rides the AI-for-sustainability wave, applying computer vision to the $1T+ global foodservice industry where waste equals 8% of GHG emissions and billions in losses, amplified by post-pandemic supply chain strains and ESG mandates[1][3]. Timing is ideal: rising food costs, labor shortages, and regulations (e.g., UN FAO targets) favor source-reduction tech that pays for itself quickly, positioning Phood amid AgTech/AI convergence with players scaling in grocery and institutional dining[4]. Market forces like thin margins (food/labor as top P&L items) and retailer sustainability goals (e.g., Whole Foods trials) propel adoption; Phood influences the ecosystem by rewiring supply chains, boosting local economies via efficient ops, and enabling data-informed menus that cut overproduction[1][3][5].
Phood is primed to dominate food waste prevention as AI hardware scales to enterprise fleets, with next steps including Whole Foods rollout, new partnerships in healthcare/hospitality, and customer growth for tangible climate impact[1][4]. Trends like AI analytics mandates, net-zero pledges, and precision AgTech will accelerate penetration, potentially evolving Phood into a full-stack ops platform via Phood Lab customizations. Its influence could standardize waste intel across foodservice, turning sustainability into a profitability engine and redefining supply chain resilience—echoing its mission to halve waste while preserving the planet.
Phood has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Phood's investors include Story Ventures, New Stack Ventures, 8VC, EVE Atlas, Fontinalis Partners, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, Revolution, Kelvin Beachum Jr..
Key people at Phood.
Phood has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $2.0M Seed in November 2020.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2020 | $2M Seed | Story Ventures, NEW Stack Ventures | 8VC, EVE Atlas, Fontinalis Partners, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, Revolution, Kelvin Beachum JR. | Announced |
