It’s a mystery (kinda). While traditional venture and strategic capital haven’t shown much enthusiasm for backing food waste-fighting technology, the category is thriving on crowdfunding site Kickstarter.
Two current campaigns, in particular, are crushing it, blowing past their initial funding targets with weeks still to go.
First up is the Shelfy Lite, the second fridge gadget from Italian startup Vitesy. The campaign has already raised over $300,000, more than ten times its original goal of around $28,000.
The Shelfy Lite works similarly to the original Shelfy (which I wrote about here), using a ceramic filter to purify fridge air and capture bacteria. The company claims that the pollutants are not just mechanically retained, but also destroyed, through a process called photocatalysis. This new version is smaller and more affordable, with a retail price of €100 (currently available at a 30%+ discount during the campaign). While the original Shelfy earned mixed reviews on its Kickstarter page, that hasn’t stopped even more backers from jumping onboard for the latest iteration.
The other gadget that’s tracking towards a successful campaign is the Ion 2, another fridge gadget promising to extend the life of your food. Like the Shelfy, it claims to purify the air, but it does so by filtering water through a silver-coated filter to ionize the air. The creators say this ionized air kills bacteria while remaining safe for humans at low concentrations.
I can’t speak to whether the Ion 2 will work as promised, but it’s clearly resonating with backers: more than 400 people have supported the campaign, which has raised over $68,000—nearly 20 times its original goal of just $3,500..
Meanwhile, the broader home food waste reduction category, from next-gen fridges to reimagined Tupperware, continues to struggle to attract venture investment. Part of the challenge is that most VCs aren’t interested in consumer hardware. But the problem seems deeper than that: few investors appear willing to bet big on fighting food waste.
Take the Tomorrow Fridge. The company shut down in April after failing to raise enough capital. CEO Andrew Kinzer shared the challenges in a candid LinkedIn post:
“When we set out to build a next-generation fridge—one that could extend the life of your fresh produce, reduce waste, and help make healthier eating easier—we knew we were taking on an ambitious challenge,” wrote Kinzer. “Unfortunately, the current climate for consumer hardware—especially for capital-intensive, science-forward products like ours—has made it incredibly difficult to bring something like this to life.”
Tomorrow is just the latest in a line of startups that have struggled to survive, including Silo, Ovie, and even Tupperware, which faced difficulty attracting strategic investment as its financial health declined.
Some might point to Mill as a rare example of traditional investors backing a food waste company. While technically true, I see Mill more as a waste management solution, at least until they launch something that prevents food waste (which I suspect they eventually will). The need for waste management is, in a sense, a validation of the significance of the problem for everyday consumers and the broader food industry.
So does the success of Shelfy and Ion 2 signal a shift? Maybe, but I’m still skeptical. Their success appears to be largely tied to the fact that both creators are veterans of the crowdfunding space, with proven records of launching hardware products in adjacent categories.
Still, you never know. With consumers feeling the pinch of higher grocery bills, the demand for ways to stop throwing money into the compost bin is growing. Perhaps, just perhaps, that rising interest will finally push more investors and founders to take consumer food waste seriously.
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