San Francisco, CA— Silo, a technology-driven marketplace that uses AI to streamline supply chains for perishable agribusiness, today announces a seed round of $3 million in capital led by Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan’s venture fund, Initialized Capital. Additional participation in this round was secured from Semil Shah from Haystack Ventures, angel investors Kevin Mahaffey and Matt Brezina and The Penny Newman Grain Company, a leading merchant in the international market for grains and feed by-products.
The wholesale produce industry is valued at $165 billion per year in the US, and is expected to exceed $1 trillion per year by 2025. However, according to Silo’s users, 40% of all wholesale produce that is sold in the US does not have a buyer in mind when grown or purchased. In the world of highly perishable wholesale agriculture, time is money. Silo is replacing traditional systems with efficient, real-time technology to reduce unnecessary costs and waste, such as loss of products & product rejections and manual processes around data entry, sales & logistics, resulting in a more sustainable and profitable supply chain. By vetting and supporting both buyers and suppliers, Silo creates hundreds of data-driven connections across retailers, wholesalers, food service companies and processors and helps them efficiently transact and avoid billions of dollars of loss each year.
“What Silo is building has the potential to make marketing and distribution of agriculture incredibly more efficient, which is a win both for the suppliers and buyers. We’re excited to support and assist this team as they work to move agriculture forward,” said Eric Woersching, General Partner at Initialized Capital.
Silo’s AI and machine learning technology adapts to existing workflows, seamlessly automating the entire supply chain from harvest management and QC, to forecasting and negotiation, through logistics and payment. The company recently rolled out a beta invite system for the produce industry to great success and positive feedback from its members. With this new capital, Silo plans to hire engineering talent to develop new machine learning capabilities, along with product features and tools to support the marketplace and increase liquidity. The company plans to grow the marketplace from its current beta to tens of thousands of members across all perishable agriculture in the coming months.
“This financing will help accelerate our growth and allow us to develop Silo into a global supply chain platform with new financial and logistical tools that we’ll roll out later this year. We’re thrilled to have such an amazing group of investors and advisors to support our team and mission. Their guidance is critical to our success,” said Ashton Braun, co-founder and CEO of Silo.
“I’ve come across quite a few marketplace platforms attempting to serve different segments of the agriculture supply chain, and none of which have come close to impressing me to the degree Silo has in their tech-forward approach to reducing the friction that comes with managing all aspects of the supply chain on their platform. Silo’s deployment of machine learning streamlines the process, requiring little to no change in their users’ workflow, and removes many barriers of their platform reaching critical mass,” said Matthew Nicoletti, commodity trader at The Penny Newman Grain Company.
About Silo
Founded in 2018, Silo is a technology-driven marketplace that uses AI to streamline supply chains for perishable agribusiness. Silo’s AI and machine learning technology adapts to existing workflows, seamlessly automating the entire supply chain from harvest management, to forecasting and negotiation, through QC and logistics. Based in San Francisco, Silo has raised $3 million in seed funding and is backed by leading angel investors. For more information, visit: https://usesilo.com
About Initialized Capital
Initialized Capital is an early stage venture firm based in San Francisco that was co-founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan, who were both previously partners at Y Combinator. Initialized’s portfolio includes companies like Instacart, Coinbase, OpenDoor, Flexport, Patreon and Cruise, which was acquired by General Motors. The firm has $500 million in assets under management and has been an early seed investor in at least six startups that are now worth more than or have successfully exited at a valuation of $1 billion.
