Silo Technologies, a provider of financial technology for distributors and grower shipper businesses in the perishable food supply chain, has raised $132 million in new capital.
This includes a $32 million Series C round and a $100 million funding facility from First Citizens Bank, Silo Technologies said in a Wednesday (July 12) press release.
The new funding round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, according to the press release.
“We’re thrilled to be a part of Silo’s journey to create a more efficient and sustainable food supply chain,” said Brendon Durkin, managing director at Koch Disruptive Technologies. “What Silo is doing is impressive because they are providing actionable solutions in a complex, competitive market that bring immediate benefits to businesses that use their products.”
As part of the funding, First Citizens Bank will join forces with Silo to help launch Silo’s Cash Advance program, which will help supply chain companies manage the cash flow gaps that are inevitable in the seasonal fresh produce business, Mason Brady, founder of Brady CFO and former chief financial officer and director of supply chain at Homegrown Organic Farms, said in the release.
“It’s essential for produce businesses to find a financing partner that comes through in a tight pinch,” Brady said. “Silo Capital is like a trigger switch with a unique underwriting process that makes it possible for them to turn around capital faster than I have seen in my entire career as a CFO,” Brady said.
Global fresh food is a $3 trillion-plus market that is tackling the inertia of doing business manually for 3,000 years, DiMuto CEO Gary Loh told PYMNTS in an interview posted in August 2022.
The key pillars of the digital transformation of the global produce industry include traceability, visibility, monetization and the trading process, Loh said.
“What we’re doing is like what the Ameritrades and Charles Schwabs of the world did for the financial markets,” Loh said. “I like to call it Alibaba on steroids.”