Our friends at Newark Venture Partners (NVP), the venture fund catalyzing innovation in Newark, hosted demo day for its latest cohort of startups participating in its NVP Labs program. We had a chance to catch up with founders in the cohort and learn more about their businesses as they hit the stage. Here is a brief snapshot:
Industrial/Organic
Founded in 2014 by Amanda Weeks (Marvel Entertainment and Mindshare), Industrial/Organic is a waste management infrastructure service to recover nutrients, energy, and water found in food waste. Nearly 50 percent of produce in the United States is thrown away totaling $160B in value according to a recent Guardian report. The Environmental Protection Agency indicates that this food waste occupies half of American landfills.
Industrial/Organic is in the midst of building a network of micro-facilities where this waste can be processed and converted to a reusable form whether it be fertilizer, animal feed, or even energy. The startup’s proprietary process serves as acheaper and faster alternative to available waste solutions. By creating smaller centers that do not require large footprints, both from a geographic and economic perspective, the startup is poised to scale in urban areas where food waste is becoming a growing concern.
The company is a past graduate of the first cohort of the Urban X accelerator program and closed a $1.3M Seed round in October of 2017 from a roster of notable investors that includes SOSV, BBG Ventures, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Melo7 Tech Partners LLC, Transcendent Holdings, Outbound Ventures, 3G Capital Partners, and Duck Island Holdings.
All to often in the startup world, we hear a company is changing the world. In this case, it’s actually true…
