What happens when you find a way to fill the gap between local farmers and communities that don’t have adequate access to affordable, healthy food? And use flash-freeze technology to bring peak-of-freshness produce to all people in a growing number of grocery stores? Investors take notice.
At least that’s what happened this past week for Seal the Seasons, a UNC-affiliated venture that raised $1..8 million in a private equity offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company was co-founded by current CEO Patrick Mateer, a 2015 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, who started Seal the Seasons while he was a student at the University.
Headquartered in Hillsborough, NC, Seal the Seasons tackles multiple issues, including providing small-to-midsize local farmers with new markets to sell their produce and offering a way for consumers in a wide range of communities to access and purchase healthy food. Consumers can already buy the produce at nearly 30 large and small grocery stores and co-ops across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, New York and New Jersey. Those retailers include Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, Fresh Market, Ingles, IGA, Whole Foods and a growing number of others.
Next up for the company are plans to expand across the nation, with its initial sites set on expanding in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Midwest and Pacific Southwest. As the company notes on its website, it’s working to bring the farmer’s market to consumers’ freezers. And this latest round of funding will allow it to do so for more people across most of the United States.
| UNC-CH