Food Waste Funder Circle - ReFED Inc.

Help Fund the Fight Against Food Waste

The Food Waste Funder Circle (FWFC) is a network designed for private, public, and philanthropic funders interested in using their capital to solve food waste challenges. The network offers a curated platform for funder education, collaboration, and investment to help drive the capital flow needed to reach national and international goals to reduce food waste by 50% by the year 2030.

Membership in the FWFC is free and open to both individual funders and representatives from funder organizations.

As a member of the FWFC, you’ll get access to regular programming related to funding food waste innovations; deal flow reports and pitches from solution providers that are actively fundraising; opportunities to work with like-minded funders on industry challenges; and more

A sampling of FWFC members is below. For the full list of public members, click here.

Member Benefits At-A-Glance:

Sign up for free or read on for more information about what it’s all about.

Why Fund Solutions to Food Waste?

Food waste is a major driver of climate change, which is affecting the ability of cropland and water resources to produce the amount of food needed to feed our growing population. When food goes uneaten, the resources used to produce it go to waste as well. If all of our country’s surplus food was grown in one place, this “mega-farm” would cover roughly 80 million acres, over three-quarters of the state of California. Growing the food on this wasteful farm would consume all the water used in California and Idaho combined.  In addition, uneaten food is the number one product entering landfills, where it has the highest generation potential for methane, an anthropogenic greenhouse gas that’s 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

It's also a major drag on our economy, and food that’s currently being wasted could go to support the one in ten Americans who are struggling with food insecurity. (Learn more about the impact of food waste here.)

By reducing food waste, we can cut greenhouse gas emissions, save water, create jobs, and recover food for those in need. And that reduction comes with a significant financial benefit too. ReFED estimates that an annual investment of $18 billion over the next ten years can not only reduce food waste by 58 million tons each year but also result in an annual net financial benefit of $74 billion — a four-to-one return.

With the Food Waste Funder Circle, ReFED is partnering with funders to accelerate the flow of capital to reach our 2030 food waste reduction target and attain the resulting financial, social, and environmental benefits.

Detailed Member Offerings

Membership in the FWFC is free.

All FWFC members receive at no cost:

  • Market update newsletters highlighting industry news and events
  • Monthly deal flow reports, which list active funding opportunities in the sector (private investment and philanthropic funding opportunities)
  • Educational events with like-minded funders from across the capital spectrum, including pitch sessions and innovation demo days
  • Opportunities to participate in “deep dives” on particular issues through diligence groups
  • Networking opportunities with fellow members, supported by a FWFC member directory 
  • Access to dedicated “office hour” sessions with ReFED and/or its program partners

Member Events

We’re curating a series of special events specifically for FWFC members, who can participate in real time or by viewing videos after each event. Learn from leaders and experts across the food system about various food waste topics such as the climate/food waste connection; new business models and approaches to reducing food waste; the role of catalytic capital in scaling innovation in food waste solutions; and more.

Past Events

Deal Flow Reports

Each month, Food Waste Funder Circle members receive an updated list of solution providers that are currently seeking various types of funding. The table below represents the cumulative listing of all of those fundraising initiatives for the calendar year 2023.

Member Spotlights

Our Member Spotlight Series features a different FWFC member organization for each installment – including any asks or offers that they have for the membership. The goal of the Member Spotlight Series is to give FWFC members a peek into the work that others in our community are doing and to connect members who could potentially benefit from a collaboration.

Branch Venture Group

Branch Venture Group

Branch Venture Group (BVG) is a Boston-based angel investment network that provides funding and connections to early-stage food-related companies. We work with our angel investor members to identify, diligence, and invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups launching new products, technologies, and services for the food industry. Our primary focus is investing in entrepreneurs raising under $3M with the capacity to syndicate larger opportunities through other networks and venture firms. We currently have 15 portfolio companies, participated in 26 financing rounds, and were the second most active investment network nationwide focused on funding food-related startups in 2021.

Learn More


Fairbridge Park

Fairbridge Park

We are an early stage fund that aspires to be the partner of choice for entrepreneurs that are tackling pertinent socieconomic problems. We enjoy working with purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology to address key challenges in foundational areas of financial/economic resilience and also in the health and wellness sector.

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Trailhead Capital

Trailhead Capital

Trailhead Capital is a mission-driven investment firm that seeks to create financial, societal, and ecological returns by backing entrepreneurs who are building the regenerative future of food and agriculture. The firm's flagship Regeneration Fund invests in regenerative agriculture companies at the Seed and Series A stages using Ag/FoodTech and business model innovation to accomplish this mission. Trailhead believes that deploying this vital capital represents the single greatest opportunity to improve human, soil, and planetary health today.

Learn More

Food Waste Funders Circle Public Members

The following organizations are public members of the Food Waste Funder Circle. We're excited to have you join them

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