The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation Innovation Fund Makes Impact Investments to Peer-Selected Startups Agua Bonita and Matriark Foods

News provided by

Nov 18, 2021, 16:11 ET

CINCINNATI, Ohio, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation ("Foundation") announced that Agua Bonita and Matriark Foods were peer-selected for impact investment funding during its first-ever Venture Showcase, an event highlighting the second cohort of its Innovation Fund ("Fund").

In May 2021, the "Fund," in collaboration with Village Capital, the largest supporter of impact-driven, seed-stage startups in the world, selected 10 startups that are launching innovative new consumer products made with surplus food or food byproducts and technologies to advance the upcycled food industry. Earlier in the year, the Fund invited innovators to submit proposals for a total of $2 million in non-dilutive grant funding.

As part of the Fund's development program, the 10 startups participated in over 40 hours of virtual workshops focused on investment readiness, technical skill development, and networking with a community of investors and mentors in and around the food system. The innovators had exclusive access to the Foundation and Village Capital's leaders and partners as they worked to achieve critical milestones over the last six-months.

At the end of the milestone development period, two startups were selected by their cohort peers for an opportunity to receive an additional $250,000 in impact investment funding for a total commitment of $2.5 million from the Foundation. The peer-selected startups are:

Agua Bonita (Hanford, California) makes ready-to-drink aguas frescas from upcycled produce, served in culturally inspired and recyclable cans.
Matriark Foods (Nyack, New York) upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut produce trimmings into healthy affordable products for institutional foodservice, diverting food from landfills while feeding communities healthy food.

The Foundation and Village Capital are relentlessly focused on supporting diverse founders with lived experience in the problems they're solving. Both Agua Bonita and Matriark Foods have a female founder or co-founder with diverse perspectives and experience with the problems they aim to solve. Overall, 80% of startups in the second cohort had a female founder or co-founder, 60% had a Black, Asian and/or Latinx founder, and 60% were headquartered outside of California, Massachusetts and New York.

About The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation
The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2018. The Foundation was formed to support initiatives that create communities free of hunger and waste.

About Kroger:
At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit®. We are nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,761 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

About Village Capital:
Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has invested in more than 110 program graduates.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.