The global food and beverage industry is a mess. Made up of more than 100 million organisations, products ranging from raw materials to ready meals comprise a market worth over $17.5 trillion. Data points about each of these products, their price, their nutritional value, where they’re in stock, and when they’re moving around the world are handled – in the vast majority of cases – manually. Shockingly, less than 5% of the F&B industry is properly integrated. Communication between stakeholders remains inefficient and one-to-one. Databases, spreadsheets, custom systems, and physical pieces of paper all contain slightly different versions of the same data. No wonder so much food goes to waste before it even reaches a consumer.
So the F&B industry is, by and large, flying blind. Fragmented information and multiple sources of truth lead to a lack of visbility, which in turn introduces poor decision-making, increased inefficiency across the value chain, and ultimately, further margin compression for an industry without much fat to trim.
The F&B ecosystem is difficult to disrupt. EDI (electronic data interchange) made a good dent, but ignored a fundamental truth of the industry: stakeholders don’t like change. Each retailer’s trading partner will have their own ERP (enterprise resource planning: a core software system that businesses use to manage their operations). Consequently, each will have its own custom data format. So, for Tesco, simply opening a data superhighway for all suppliers does not solve a problem. In fact, it makes an existing one more overwhelming. Producers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors and all the other groups that make up the F&B industry want to derive the benefits of data exchange without incurring the operational overhead of creating thousands of custom integrations.
Exit 1960s technology; enter Cerve.
Cerve is a singular API that integrates with any ERP system. An API is an application programming interface: a connection between computers and computer programs. Think of it as a portal through which any supplier can communicate with any of their retailers. More accurately, think of it as a portal via which the entire F&B industry can communicate in a lingua franca. Cerve’s API connects the 100 million dots that make up the world’s F&B ecosystem.
Solving this problem will require inordinate attention to detail.
Meeting Dan, I was immediately struck by his thoughtfulness. He had compelling answers to even the most searching questions. He was not loud or brash, but conveyed quiet confidence. The more I probed, the more confident he became. Then, he opened Pandora’s Box. Dan’s Notion is the most comprehensive data room I have encountered. To every question, an answer. For every answer, corroboration and evidence. And not only for the questions you, I, or anyone else might conceivably pose today, but also for imagined questions from 5 years in the future. Dan, then, has totally fastidious attention to detail.
It quickly became clear that Dan had been reverse-engineering complex problems all of his career. As a technology consultant, Dan had been parachuted in to fix unsolvable problems in large organisations like Uber, Dell, and Google. Having spent some time developing his design skills at MetaLab, Dan decided to launch his own product consultancy, which he grew rapidly over a two-year period, working predominantly with enterprise customers. Since 2019, he has focussed obsessively on applying all these accumulated skills to solving the F&B data problem.
When we evaluate investment opportunities, we put a lot of emphasis on our interpretation of founder ‘strength’. In Cerve’s case, we were sold on the founder very quickly. Dan has that ineffable je ne sais quoi that inspires excitement and confidence in equal measure. The X Factor. Fizz. Whatever it is, we knew we needed to be involved.
Cerve, delivering on its promise, will overhaul the entire F&B industry. The solution sounds, on first examination, simple. While elegant, the API establishes the foundations necessary for the next generation of technological evolution. Initially, orders will be processed and placed automatically, with zero data loss. The visibility this lossless exchange introduces means stakeholders can buy and sell exactly what they want and need to, exactly when they want to. Updating pricing information, stock levels, product availability, order status, and delivery timing is instantaneous for Cerve subscribers. Longer-term, these data can be manipulated by third parties to introduce even more automation to the industry, and the keystone for this brave new world is Cerve’s data portal.
SuperSeed worked hard to win a very competitive deal. We led the £3.5m Seed round, assembling a strong consortium of investors with excellent connections in the F&B industry. We cannot wait to ensure that Dan and Cerve’s genius bear fruit.