Retail Business Services Kicks Off Mentorship of Five Supply Chain Start-Ups
On July 10, Retail Business Services, the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA, kicked off its recently announced Supply Chain Seed Program, an innovative new program and partnership with Venture Café that brings early-stage entrepreneurs together with Retail Business Services associates for an immersive, 10-week opportunity to build next-generation products or services to solve problems in the retail supply chain. Retail Business Services supports the supply chain operations of Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands. Considered together, the companies comprise one of the largest grocery retail groups in the U.S.
Through the program, five startups that are paired with a mentor from Retail Business Services’ Supply Chain and Information Technology, teams as well as Strategy teams from Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands. The mentors will support their startup partner by helping cultivate new ideas, grow the product or service to become scalable for retail, and execute innovative ideas to help develop the startup’s business.
Over the next three months, the mentors will provide insight, feedback and applicable industry knowledge for the startups, which will pitch their product or service at the Supply Chain Connect Conference in September 2019.
The startups selected for the Supply Chain Seed Program are:
- Cambridge Crops: A natural, edible and cost-effective solution to extend the shelf life of perishable goods.
- Taktile: An Internet of Things (IoT) platform that measures resource use in labor-intensive industrial operations and detects productivity problems in real-time.
- Vinder: An online farmers’ market that connects small producers with neighbors and restaurants to buy and sell homegrown foods.
- Stimulus: A relationship intelligence technology that streamlines vendor and supplier management to empower companies with the data to make better purchasing decisions.
- Wasteless: A technology that reduces food waste and increases perishable food revenue by dynamically pricing items with a shorter expiration date at their optimal price point.
Stay tuned for more on this collaborative program! Over the next 10 weeks, we will share updates on the venture startups’ progress in partnership with their Retail Business Services mentor.