B2B food upcycling startup Wastelink has raised US$ 3 million in Series A funding round from Avaana Capital, a venture capital firm hat focuses on investing in tech led innovation within climate and sustainability sectors. The operations of Wastelink focus on mitigating two primary challenges of the animal feed industry, volatile supply and unstable prices. The startup processes food surplus into high quality feed ingredients, delivers nutrient consistency, all the while building supply security across animal feed supply chains. The firm is also backed by Indigram Labs, a technology business incubator (TBI) that supports agritech, food processing, renewable energy, and healthcare startups.
Founded in 2018 by Saket Dave and Krishnan Kasturirangan, Wastelink operates under Foreplant Industries. The company processes food surplus from various sources, including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), retailers, and food manufacturers and transforms it into ECOMIX, a standardized, traceable, performance tested animal feed ingredient.
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Animal feed production is primarily dependent on maize and soya, products that are susceptible to price fluctuations, nutritional inconsistency and climate risks. This instability hampers both feed manufacturers and farmers, and to tackle this, Wastelink’s AI based formulation ECOMIX delivers consistent nutrition while simultaneously tackling price shocks.
Wastelink for Sustainable Nutrition
Since the beginning of its operations in 2018, Wastelink has processed more than 35,000 tons of FMCG surplus into feed ingredients. The ECOMIX supports 38,500+ animals, and has been able to improve milk yields by up to 15%. ECOMIX is supplied as raw material to feed companies, and it leverages an AI powered reverse supply chain system that enables food companies to track surplus utilization while also providing feed manufacturers with transparency in raw material processing, it creates resilience in animal feed that supports farmers, businesses, and the environment.
Animal feed is the backbone of our food system, yet it suffers from chronic volatility in quality and price. We’re addressing this by delivering consistent, traceable, and cost-stable nutrition at scale.
According to a report by InsightAce Analytic, the global upcycled food products market is projected to reach US$ 119.8 billion by 2034. Wastelink claims to serve over 5,000 pincodes across India and has witnessed considerable growth owing to rising need for sustainable practices and innovations in food processing industry. Wastelink operates four factories in Sonipat, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Lucknow, partnering with over 50 food suppliers and around a dozen animal feed companies. The company collaborates with several major enterprises and FMCG brands catering to mass consumption.
