HowGood Raises $6M for Product Sustainability Database
HowGood, an SaaS data platform for the food and personal care industries, has raised a $6 million investment round in its mission to help retailers and investors deepen their environmental and social impact to attract the growing number of eco-conscious consumers.
Through in-depth, ingredient-level insights into factors like greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, labor risk, animal welfare, health and toxicity, and other key impacts, HowGood data powers strategic decision-making for the sourcing, manufacturing, merchandising and marketing of sustainable products.
The funding will specifically accelerate the development of HowGood's Latis sustainability intelligence platform, which provides instant ingredient-level sustainability insights to CPGs, restaurants and retailers, in addition to fueling product innovation and expansion into key verticals beyond food and grocery.
"Sustainability is no longer a 'nice to have' — it is a prerequisite in competing for consumer mindshare," said Alexander Gillett, CEO and founder of the Brooklyn, New York-based company. "HowGood is making it possible for global brands to take a leadership position in a rapidly changing marketplace by putting powerful data into the hands of decision-makers in a way that is more accessible and actionable than anything else on the market. This investment will help to scale our product offering and allow for expansion into new verticals."
Additionally, HowGood will be able to expand its platform to meet additional market demands, including the incorporation of supplier and nutritional data.
HowGood recently joined forces with The Giant Co. on an easy-to-use environmental and social-impact rating system for consumers. Customers of the company’s online shopping platforms, Giant Direct and Martin's Direct, can now access environmental and social impact ratings powered by HowGood, which analyzes each product ingredient against environmental and social criteria. Customers can also search products by specific sustainable attributes.
HowGood's ratings are also used by Walmart, Applegate, Cid's Food Market, Danone, Chipotle and other brands.
Contour Venture Partners led HowGood’s investment round, with participation from FirstMark Capital, Danone Manifesto Ventures, Trailhead Capital and others.
"HowGood has spent years building and productizing a research database that is unparalleled in the sustainability intelligence industry," said Matt Gorin, managing director and co-founder of New York-based Contour Venture Partners, which was also HowGood's seed investor. "We are excited to partner with the company as they drive real change across the supply chain and support CPGs and retailers in their increasing efforts towards sustainable and regenerative product development. This has now become table stakes for food brands in order to meet the demands from the consumer around food ingredient transparency across a number of variables that are important to them."
"HowGood has proven to be a valuable innovation partner to Danone, helping bring in-depth sustainability insights through Latis," added Laurent Marcel, CEO of New York-based Danone Manifesto Ventures. "We are pleased to expand our relationship with HowGood as a partner and an investor and look forward to our continued work with Alexander and the team."
Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is the parent company for Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. companies, consisting of Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Co., Hannaford, and Stop & Shop, as well as e-grocer Peapod; Retail Business Services, a U.S. support services company providing services to the brands; and Peapod Digital Labs, its e-commerce engine. Operating more than 2,000 stores across more than 20 states, Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 11 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in the United States.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart operates more than 11,300 stores under 56 banners in 27 countries, and e-commerce websites, employing 2.2 million-plus associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on PG's list.
