debut investment: It'sFresh!

Anterra Capital to invest in food,agriculture companies with focus on improving supply chain

Anterra Capital, formed following the spin-out of Rabobank's proprietary venture capital investment team, is pleased to announce the launch of its new growth capital fund investing in innovative companies that will make the food and agriculture supply chain safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

Anterra has made its debut investment in Food Freshness Technology Holdings (FFT), a UK leader in food preservation. FFT's technology, It'sFresh! absorbs and locks away ethylene gas, the natural plant ripening hormone. By reducing ambient ethylene levels, It'sFresh! radically slows the ripening and decay of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers in the supply chain, reducing waste and assuring consumer product quality.

Peter Sugarman, Chairman of FFT, said: "We are delighted Anterra Capital has chosen to invest in us. It'sFresh! technology has tremendous opportunities to reduce waste, improve food security and sustainability and provide consumers with fresher fruit in both the developed and developing worlds. For example if all UK supermarkets used It'sFresh! technology, we calculate they could avoid wasting over 13,500,000 packs of tomatoes and almost 19,500,000 punnets of strawberries every year. In each case that's a saving of almost 7,000 metric tonnes, an equivalent mass to the Eiffel Tower-and in only two of the many fresh produce categories, in one country."

Adam Anders, Managing Partner at Anterra, said: "The food industry is increasingly seeking out new technologies to solve its growing issues. FFT is a prime example of an innovative company that has the potential to transform the global food supply chain. Rabobank's F&A knowledge base and network, combined with the global investment experience of Moonray, give Anterra a unique perspective and edge in supporting the growth of companies like FFT. We are excited to be supporting FFT in the global commercialisation of It'sFresh and look forward to announcing additional investments soon."

For more information:
Andrew Vincent
College Hill-It'sFresh
Tel: +44 (0)1869 353800
Email: itsfresh@collegehill.com

Publication date: Mon 11 Nov 2013