Milk Moovement Secures $3.1 Million to Modernize the Dairy Supply Chain

By Jemima McEvoy | Saturday, 24 April 2021 | Startup, Food & Beverage

Milk Moovement has raised $3.1 million in a seed funding round. The Canadian startup is hoping to move the dairy supply chain even further away from its old-fashioned past through the use of cloud-based technology — and there really couldn’t be a better time. The agriculture and food technology, or agritech, industry has seen massive growth in recent years. In 2020 alone, investments in the sector jumped by 44% to 8.1 billion, from $5.6 billion in 2019, leaving lots of room for new companies.

What Is Milk Moovement?

The agritech startup was founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Robert Forsythe and Jon King. Having worked in the dairy industry before, the founders believed there were opportunities to better generate and share data to improve supply chain operations.

Their solution, Milk Moovement, is a dairy SaaS company that tracks milk shipments from producers to processing plants. The software sold by the agritech business provides detailed, real-time information about the quality and quantity of milk to all parties involved in the entire raw milk supply chain, offering a new and crucial visibility. The company says its SaaS reduces administrative time by 85%.

Funding from Investors

Prior to this funding round, the dairy company had previously raised just $275,000 in pre-seed funding from startup accelerators, according to Crunchbase. The funding round that closed this month is significantly larger, bringing new momentum to the company — along with numerous new investors. Among the firms that handed off capital to the business are supply chain and mobility venture capital firm Dynamo Ventures, which led the funding round, Bread & Butter Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, and Better Food Ventures. The agritech startup also gained interest from angel investor Richard Cargill, who participated in the round.

The Future of the Agritech Business

This round comes at a time of significant growth for this company. The agritech business already has established clients across Canada, the US, and Australia, but according to Forsythe, who serves as CEO, there are more deals in the works. “This round is interesting because it happened with the flywheel of sales happening,” the founder told Crunchbase in a recent interview about the startup. “We are talking to big US players, and over the last six months we are getting our name out there.”

Forsythe said the dairy business is in the process of scaling — from 500 to more than 2,000 farms in the next three months. According to a recent press release from the company, Milk Moovement has realized an annual growth rate in its raw milk under management of roughly 117%. Another sign of its growth, the startup is planning to open a new office based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With this foothold in the US, Milk Moovement is hoping to expand its business across the US.

The success of this agritech startup in just a few short years was touted by many of the investors who participated in the recent round. “Dynamo reviews a huge number of startups every year that seek to modernize the food supply chain,” said Dynamo Ventures Partner Jon Bradford. “What stood out to us about Milk Moovement was the founders, their incredible long-term vision, and their engagement with the industry at many different levels.”