Food Waste Recovery Startup Industrial/Organic Closes $1.3 Million Seed Round

NEWARK, NJ --(Marketwired - October 03, 2017) - Industrial/Organic, a food waste startup providing a lower-cost, lower-impact organic recycling solution via a network of urban biorefineries, announced today that it has closed a $1.3 million seed round of fundraising led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Other investors include SOS Ventures, BBG Ventures, Honeycomb Portfolio, Newark Venture Partners, Outbound Ventures, Melo7 Tech Partners, 3G Capital Investments, Duck Island Holdings and other angels and individuals.

As cities around the country and the world set ambitious waste diversion initiatives, they're looking to the largest component of landfills -- food waste -- to achieve these goals. Industrial/Organic brings organic waste infrastructure to urban areas with a distributed network of modular facilities that are owned and operated by the company. A multi-step mechanical and biological process rapidly stabilizes wasted food and other biodegradable materials to be converted into new sustainable products. The water, organic chemicals, nutrients and energy potential present in food are recovered in a shorter timeframe at a fraction of the cost of competitive waste solutions.

This method developed over the past four years is not composting, but an anaerobic fermentation that also differs from anaerobic digestion as it does not generate any methane. The unique characteristics of the Industrial/Organic approach allow it to operate within cities, requiring less space than a typical waste facility while utilizing existing industrial spaces with a "pop-up" spirit.

"Industrial/Organic is a great example of the kind of investment I'm excited to make at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. I feel very lucky to have gotten in on the ground floor of such a game changing company," noted Charlie Donnell, Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, in Brooklyn, NY. "I can't wait for the upcoming launch of their first commercial facility. The fact that this company was basically a science project in a garage just a year ago is a testament to how impressive this team is."

"Since starting the company in 2014, I've seen the issue of waste increasingly recognized as a major problem that overlaps with many important issues of today. We're excited to be part of the solution, and our focus on product development with resources we're capturing from the waste stream sets us apart from others in the space," said Industrial/Organic co-founder Amanda Weeks. "We look forward to working with a diverse group of investors that believes in our mission and the opportunity as much as we do."

The first Industrial/Organic commercial scale facility is set to open in Newark, NJ, by the end of 2017 to serve the New York Metro area. Learn more about Industrial/Organic at www.industrialorganic.co and follow I/O on Facebook (www.facebook.com/industrialorganic), Instagram (@industrialorganic) and Twitter (@iotweets).

About Industrial/Organic
Founded in 2014 by Amanda Weeks and Brett Van Aalsburg, Industrial/Organic is part of a new breed of startups focused on social impact. The mission of Industrial/Organic is to recover the resources spent on wasted food and reuse them to create a more sustainable system for food and other consumer goods. Industrial/Organic uses a unique business model of distributed micro-facilities that utilize existing industrial spaces. This allows Industrial/Organic to scale faster, without the capital intensity of other solutions, and bypass the red tape of construction and land use, providing a lower cost alternative to landfilling and other organic waste recycling solutions. The first Industrial/Organic commercial scale facility will serve the New York Metro area from a former meatpacking plant in Newark, NJ.

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