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Five international retailers, including Ahold Delhaize and Tesco, have started a fund to invest in start-ups and scale-ups with the potential to change the food retail sector and tackle sustainability challenges.
Improve shopping experience
The fund, called “W23 Global”, aims to accelerate innovation in grocery retail. Besides the two European retail giants, Australia’s Woolworths, Canada’s Empire/Sobeys and South Africa’s Shoprite are also co-founders. In the next five years, they will together invest 125 million dollars (115 million euros), the press release says.
Specifically, W23 Global will look for companies that use technology to offer consumers a better shopping experience, increase efficiency in the value chain, reduce emissions and waste, or focus on packaging innovation, product traceability and transparency, healthy choices and biodiversity.
The fund will be led by Belgian Ingrid Maes, who currently leads Woolworths’ innovation fund. She has extensive experience in the retail world: after eight years as a consultant at Accenture, she worked for Australian supermarket chain Coles for five years, and has been with Woolworths since 2012.
