Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Food retail innovation: 7 Startups spotted at Tech for Retail 2024

blank

Tech for Retail 2024 held in Paris last week showcased a wide array of startups introducing groundbreaking solutions to revolutionize the retail industry. Among these, food retail innovation stood out as a key area of focus, addressing critical challenges such as managing perishable goods and advancing sustainability.

While many themes were explored at the event, we delved into the latest advancements in this sector. In this article, we highlight seven startups transforming food retail with practical solutions to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and drive sustainability across the industry

Onethird: predicting freshness to combat food waste

blank

OneThird tackles food waste with AI technology that predicts the shelf life of fresh produce and assesses ripeness in real time. This helps retailers, suppliers, and consumers make smarter decisions.

Their AI-powered freshness scanners let shoppers check the ripeness of produce, such as avocados, without squeezing or damaging them. This reduces spoilage while improving inventory management. These scanners are already in use at Jumbo (Netherlands) and Migros (Switzerland). By gamifying the shopping experience, they make fresh produce management more efficient.

Holis: life cycle analysis for greener retail

blank

Holis provides a SaaS platform that automates life cycle analysis (LCA). This tool helps reduce the environmental impact of products by modeling value chains and connecting suppliers.

With insights into eco-design, Holis enables businesses to create more sustainable products. This platform is especially useful for food retailers who want to prioritize environmental responsibility without sacrificing efficiency.

Kheops: strengthening local supply chains

blank

Kheops connects local producers with large retailers through a digital platform. By streamlining sourcing, order management, and communication, it simplifies integrating locally produced goods into retail offerings.

For producers, the platform opens access to larger markets. For retailers, it helps them meet the growing demand for local goods. Ultimately, this strengthens local economies and reduces supply chain environmental footprints.

B4food: traceability and safety made simple

blank

B4Food ensures food safety and supply chain transparency through a platform powered by blockchain and AI. It simplifies the management of inventory, recipes, and compliance data for businesses.

The platform’s eco-conscious features, such as real-time tracking and eco-scores, offer practical tools to improve operations. These innovations reduce waste while helping businesses stay compliant with food safety standards.

Ida: AI-powered fresh stock management

blank

Ida uses artificial intelligence to simplify managing fresh produce in retail. By forecasting demand and optimizing inventory processes, the platform helps retailers minimize losses and reduce waste.

Ida integrates seamlessly with central purchasing systems. This ensures fresh products are available when needed, without overstocking, making it ideal for large retailers.

Freshflow: demand forecasting for fresh produce

blank

Freshflow uses demand forecasting technology to improve fresh inventory management. By analyzing sales trends and consumer behavior, the platform reduces overstocking and spoilage.

Its ability to improve product availability while minimizing waste aligns with retailers’ need for efficiency. Freshflow supports sustainable food retail practices that address growing consumer expectations.

Ugofresh: real-time supply chain optimization

blank

UgoFresh offers a real-time platform for managing ultra-fresh product supply chains. It connects suppliers, distributors, and retailers to enable seamless communication and better coordination.

This focus on transparency and waste reduction makes UgoFresh a key player in optimizing perishable goods supply chains. By improving supply chain efficiency, it supports retailers in meeting the demand for fresh, high-quality products.


These startups are tackling practical challenges in food retail, from reducing waste to improving supply chain efficiency. Their innovations show how technology can make food retail more effective and sustainable.

To learn more about the future of food, subscribe to our FoodTech newsletter here for weekly insights from the industry !

you might also like

blank
Events 20 hours ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 2 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.