Authentic, Better-for-You Beverages

The prevalence of sugar-related diseases like diabetes is high throughout the US. Latinx adults have a greater than 50% chance of developing Type-2 diabetes. Improving health should not require communities to abandon culturally relevant foods and drinks. Agua Bonita fills this need. Their drinks have as much as 80% less sugar than the traditional beverage. Recipes use real fruit and avoid synthetic additives.

Serving the Communities that Serve Agua Bonita

As Agua Bonita continues to expand its retail presence, they’ve thought carefully about pricing and marketing their product for accessibility to key communities. With products available in retailers from Whole Foods to
7-Eleven, and tiered pricing to match, Agua Bonita has made it clear that only serving customers in wealthy zip codes is not enough. They plan to continue refining their pricing strategy and product-market fit moving forward to ensure that Agua Bonita’s beverages not only reach the customers who love them, but also that they lead this new beverage category they’re creating.

“Much like the aguas frescas we make, my family history starts in Mexico and settles in the fruit fields of the Central Valley of California. My ancestors immigrated to the states pursuing the opportunity for a better life and following the migrant farm work as field workers, which led us here – where we grow 60% of the nation’s produce!”

-Kayla Castañeda, founder of Agua Bonita

Accessible Food with Traditionally Superior Nutrition

AYO’s recipes are made in collaboration with some of the world’s most celebrated African chefs. But flavor is just the beginning. Their line of meals has also been lauded for its nutritional profile. Expert use of whole, plant-based foods, especially as a protein source, make the line nutritionally superior relative to the frozen category. AYO’s products are also gluten-free.

Authentic West African Flavors for Everyone

AYO is bringing flavors of West Africa to Americans in convenient formats via several nationwide retailers. They also recently broke ground on an innovation center in the Southside of Chicago, which will provide critical operations space, a community cultural space, and support opportunities for Black youth through a partnership with a local high school.

Resilient Ingredients Reinvigorate Supply Chains

Recipes from West Africa call for ingredients of West African origins. Many of these are grown in the US today by West African immigrants. By centering these ingredients in their products, AYO elevates crops pushed to the margins of conventional American agriculture. By expanding the market for nutritious, heat-, and drought-tolerant crops like peanuts and black eyed peas, AYO supports climate smart agriculture. They also often used wasted or lost ingredients into their products, an important step toward a climate smart food system. The company works with Girl Power Africa, a non-profit committed to empowering Liberian women and children to rise above economic and social conditions through entrepreneurship.

Developing Safe, Reliable Supply Chains

In the near-term, 100% of ingredients will be sourced from Global Food Safety Initiative certified suppliers – a recognized food safety certification program. Compound aims to receive responsible sourcing certification for 60%-80% of its ingredients by 2024

Empowering a Diverse Workforce

Compound ensures diversity at all levels of the organization – from entry level to board members, two-thirds of their leadership and 70% of their team is female. They will target 50% female board members. As of 2023, all new job descriptions and managerial roles will include social and environmental performance, with ESG goals in employee training. By 2025, all job descriptions will include ESG performance.

Supporting a Future for Coffee Farmers without Coffee

By creating an alternative to coffee, Compound is relieving pressure on coffee production and supply chains. They are sensitive to how this will impact smallholder coffee farmers and they are partnering with DoSelva, a Nicaragua-based organization. This investment will help transition instead of translate traditional coffee production land into agroforestry systems which are better for biodiversity; this should translate into higher, diversified wages from the new, higher-value crops grown on their land.

Climate Smart Coffee Crafted from Upcycled Ingredients

Coffee production both suffers the effects of climate change, and contributes to it. Compound tackles both by using 90% local ingredients and 40% upcycled inputs. They recently joined the Upcycled Food Association. Additionally, Compound completed a life cycle assessment (LCA) on their product and determined it generates 91% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 94% less water and 86% less land than coffee. The company plans to use renewable energy and reduce water usage in leased facilities, and in 2023 they will track the percentages of packaging that are made from recycled or renewable materials. They also plan to achieve B Corp certification.

Harnessing the power of AI to adapt to disruptions

Helios leverages advanced technology to analyze billions of signals in real-time for their enterprise clients. They can analyze data at the farm and facility level, empowering customers to proactively prepare for supply chain disruptions.

Case in point: In December 2023, European potato prices rose as heavy rains sunk potato spuds, limiting supplies during a high demand period for this Christmas-dinner staple. Farmers sidelined tractors, which have difficulty navigating waterlogged fields, limiting collection. The crops risked rotting if left too long. 

Helios flagged this type of disruption in advance, predicting the precipitation impacting potatoes in mid-to-late October – weeks before the price of processed potatoes rose to an all time seasonal high. The information helps mitigate millions of dollars in potential price increases from the bad harvest.

A hassle-free and cost-effective hydration solution

Kadeya provides on-demand filtered and flavored water to today’s workforce via stainless steel reusable bottles that can be returned at the end of the day on site. Kadeya is focused on the US Industrial Workplace market, where they see an opportunity to convert one of the largest sectors that relies on single-use water bottles to the Kadeya system. 

Studies show that 75% of US workers15 are chronically dehydrated. Data from Kadeya on worker hydration levels help employers predict worker hydration levels and prevent any heat-related injuries. Employee usage creates digital records which demonstrate water consumption and usage for OSHA compliance. In addition, Kadeya is focused on developing a supply chain for recycled stainless steel for its bottles and sourcing it domestically to continue to limit emissions across its broader supply chain.

Safe to Share

Partake products are safe to share and made in allergen-free facilities. The company selects ingredients to be better for the health of their customers, focusing on just a few wholesome ingredients. Partake partners with organizations like No Kid Hungry to provide access to food, education and advocacy for families that live with food allergies. Their products are available at major retailers and they are expanding to schools, where they’re supporting creation of “safe tables” in cafeterias where allergy-sensitive students can eat without fear.

Supporting Diversification of Food Industry Leadership

Partake was founded by a Black woman and is led by a team composed primarily of people whose gender and racial identities are underrepresented in the food industry. Partake’s founder and CEO Denise Woodard founded Black Futures in Food and Beverage in 2020. This annual fellowship program mentors students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and helps them advance towards promising futures in the food and beverage industry, where Black men and women are historically underrepresented.

Optimizing Logistics to Improve Climate Impacts

Partake’s scale is expected to greatly reduce their logistics related greenhouse gas emissions. The company plans to track their fridge savings, including freight mile reductions. Using standard EPA tools, they will be able to calculate the overall reductions and efficiency improvements on a per unit basis.

Building on Nature’s Foundation

Robigo provides chemical-free pesticides for farmers. Their compelling value proposition addresses crop yields, quality, versatility and competes on cost with conventional pesticides. They have proven their treatments in various crops including tomato, cabbage, apple, and turnip in greenhouse and lab conditions.

CEO Andee Wallace explains, “Today, the most widely used pesticides are toxic to the soil, broader environment, and human consumers in large part because they kill indiscriminately. We’ve developed a way to give naturally-occurring microbes a boost that enables them to protect crops from disease.”

Robigo is currently focused on yield; the next stage of measurement is exploring the impact of a diverse microbiome on soil and human health. They also seek to concretely measure the environmental benefits of Robigo’s treatments against petroleum-based pesticides.

A data platform for the future of (manual) work

Tendrel’s software platform drives workflow & workforce visibility for frontline operators, starting within the food and agriculture industry. In 2023, Tendrel delivered value across a variety of dimensions, voiced by their customers:

“We’re looking to Tendrel as a unified system of work, spanning sites across the country to provide near real-time supply chain visibility for both our workforce and product. This platform is a cornerstone to drive productivity and reduce waste.” Jeremy Stokes, APS Growers (UK multi-site operator of greenhouses & packhouses)

“Our facility was able to reduce food waste in one month by 30x – from 15,000 lbs. to less than 500 lbs., which was enabled by both effective sales allocation and visibility through Tendrel.” COO of a family-owned / small operator farm in US