Feeding the world is a big job, and the effort produces billions of mets of emissions of greenhouse gases each year, which the UN estimates to be around a third of the global total. Despite the fact that food is a big climate problem, very little has been done so far to address it. This is where London-based Mondra, a product footprinting and supply chain decarbonisation AI-driven SaaS platform comes into the picture.
Expansion plans
In a recent development, Mondra raised £3.6 million in pre-series A funding. The investment round came from 7 Generation Ventures, AlbionVC (backed Ophelos and Phasecraft) GC Foodtech Ventures, Foodsparks by Peakbridge, Ponderosa Ventures, and Vala Capital.
The investment will be used to expedite Mondra’s rollout to UK grocers, of whom 85% are signed up to use the platform. This investment, and subsequent rollout, will position Mondra for expansion beyond the UK, and beyond the Private Label food space into other retail and CPG segments. It will also enable the delivery of new retailer insight tools, enhanced agricultural data, and carbon insetting.
Helps realise Net Zero food system
Founded by Jason Barrett, Mondra’s platform enables organisations across the supply chain to record, share and monitor environmental data using a coherent set of common tools, allowing the measurement and management of Scope 3 emissions.
It also lets users run Lifetime Cycle Assessments (LCA) on thousands of products in a matter of hours, so brands and retailers can prioritise action, engage their suppliers in a meaningful way to reduce impacts, and facilitate a commercially prosperous Net Zero food system.
Mondra is a product footprinting and supply chain decarbonisation SaaS platform. It leverages AI technologies to create digital twins of food supply chains and provide the tools to engage supply chain actors to collaborate to realise Net Zero.
Mondra recently spearheaded the launch of the BRC Mondra Coalition, which has brought together Industry, Government, and NGOs, to establish a unified industry standard for measuring product-level environmental performance.
Participating businesses include retailers Tesco, M&S, Co-op, Ocado Retail, Asda, Lidl, and Sainsbury’s, brands like Starbucks and Nando’s, and suppliers like Avara, Samworth Brothers, Greencore, Pilgrims UK, Dunbia, Cranswick and Bakkavor.
Jason Barrett, founder of Mondra said: “We’ve developed a technology platform to tackle one of the biggest environmental issues in the food supply chain, GHG emissions, of which food is estimated at around 30% globally. If the industry is going to achieve its net zero targets, it needs to be able to consistently measure, reduce, and report with accuracy its scope three emissions and decarbonise its supply chains. Following three years of R&D, we formally launched the platform in 2023. It’s been a great start to our journey but there’s so much to achieve and this investment will supercharge our UK growth and support our entry into Europe.”
Chloë Payne, Investor at Ponderosa Ventures added: “We believe that Mondra’s footprinting solution can not only assist companies in meeting their scope 3 emissions reductions targets but can also support product development teams in improving products to meet the demands of end-consumers. In this way, we expect Mondra to help customers drive both impact and commercial outcomes.”
Adam Chirkowski, Investment Director AlbionVC said: “Mondra is building the market standard in scope 3 emissions and Lifetime Cycle Assessment for the food supply chain. Their digital hyper-modelling approach allows companies to accurately understand their supply chain impacts instead of relying on high-level assumptions, enabling actionable insights to drive real change both environmentally and to the bottom line. Led by an experienced team and with the majority of leading UK grocery retailers already signed up, the opportunity to expand both horizontally and geographically and to build a generational company that supports transition to a more sustainable economy is extremely exciting.”
Martina Pace, PeakBridge COO commented: “Reforming our global food system requires us to face – and tackle – the outsized role food has in climate change. From retailers to CPGs, businesses have a huge part to play in changing that, and Mondra gives them a powerful tool to do it, with consistent measurement across the supply chain. At PeakBridge we’re proud to be part of their next chapter.”
