IoT foodtech startup secures first investment

Founded in 2016, Axino helps food retailers digitise and automate their food quality management process while complying with increasingly complex food safety regulations. Current retail food quality validation processes are time-consuming and often inaccurate contributing to food waste and energy waste. The startup solves these issues through their innovative industrialised wireless sensor that can predict the core temperature of refrigerated food in retail stores even in challenging wireless environments while maintaining years-long battery life by communicating via Low-Power Wide Area Networks such as LoRaWAN. This, connected with their intelligent food quality algorithms, helps retail and cold-chain companies manage their food quality efficiently.

Working with industry leaders like Migros, Switzerland's largest retail company, Axino has already shown significant ability to tackle the growing food and grocery retail market, which is expected to grow from USD 13,98 trillion in 2020 to USD 17.30 trillion by 2027, according to Grand View Research. IoT technologies and networks combined with increasing food quality awareness and regulations are fuelling this growth. 

First external investment
To accelerate growth, Axino has secured its first external capital a financing round led by Momenta Ventures. Commenting on their inspiration for investing in Axino, Ken Forster, Executive Director of  Momenta Ventures, said: "These unprecedented times have created heightened consumer awareness of food quality. Solutions such as Axino are a triple win – helping retailers save costs and energy, meet stricter food standards, to better serve their shoppers with fresher foods – Axino's award-winning solution is truly a first critical step in the digital transformation of retail."

In line with the investment, Momenta has placed Mario Vögeli as the new CEO of Axino. Vögeli has extensive experience in scaling digital technology companies. Most notably, he previously was the co-founder, CFO, and COO of Arktis Radiation Detectors Ltd, an award-winning Swiss startup that develops and manufactures next-generation systems that detect and categorise radiological and nuclear materials to enhance operations and security.

"I was Immediately attracted to Axino, by the depth of its team and technology, as well as by the market need for these solutions. Axino is at the inflection point of making a substantial impact on the retail industry."

With Momenta and Mario Vögeli joining Axino, the startup has won deep digital industry experts to bolster its expertise and accelerate speed to market for the rollout of its food quality solution into the global retail industry, as revealed by Ihab Hourani, CTO, and Founder of Axino.