Diving Brief:

• Nutrition technology company Sifter has raised $5 million in seed funding, the company announced in an announcement Wednesday. Valor Siren Ventures – a joint venture created by Starbucks and Valor Equity Partners – led the round, with participation from Hyde Park Angels (HPA) and Wintrust Ventures.
• Sifter plans to use the new funding to accelerate the growth of its nutrition-as-a-service platform, he said. The company also said it launched Sifter Retailer Solutions.
• “This investment allows us to launch a suite of solutions to help retailers attract and retain the fast-growing, health-focused consumer segment that is critical for grocers as shoppers’ wallets tighten,” said said Andrew Parkinson, co-founder and CEO of Sifter. in the ad.

Overview of the dive:

The funding comes about 15 months after Parkinson and his brother Thomas Parkinson, founders of online grocery store Peapod, launched Sifter to help people shop at partner retailers based on their dietary needs and lifestyle. life.

The turn follows a $4.6 million seed round last spring with funding from Valor Equity Partners and HPA for their nutrition-focused grocery service. Along with Peapod and Sifter, the Parkinson brothers founded ItemMastera product content platform for brands, retailers and consumers.

Among Sifter’s current offerings, it has an omnichannel Analyze by diet solution, which integrates with retailers’ mobile apps and allows shoppers to use their smartphone to scan the product UPC and in-store shelf tags to find items that match their preferences. The tech company also has a white label “personal health aisle” solution that incorporates a Shop-By-Diet tool.

Its Nutrition as a Service platform allows shoppers to plan meals, manage multiple food profiles, and shop online with filters for multiple “food, food avoidance, and lifestyle preferences in a single search.” , according to the announcement.

With over 130 dietary and nutritional filters, Sifter claims its takes a scientific approach to its proprietary technology and uses feedback from dietitians, health and wellness organizations, major retailers, brands and data providers.

In January, Walmart said it used Sifter’s “Shop-by-Diet” scanning tool for an online and in-app experience that helps customers identify products that meet their health and dietary criteria. welfare.

Target, Kroger, Amazon, Stop & Shop, e-wholesaler Thrive Market and Instacart have also partnered with Sifter, according to Sifter’s website.

Sifter’s funding and growth comes at a time when grocers and grocery e-commerce, as companies respond to consumer demands for healthy foods and more tools to identify products that meet their dietary needs and lifestyle, especially online, which poses unique challenges but also opportunities for finding nutritional information.

Customers may encounter hard-to-read or missing photos or content regarding an item’s ingredients and nutritional information. But shopping online creates opportunities to filter and label products by attributes in ways that might be more difficult in-store.

Earlier this year, Schnuck Markets launched a program to help buyers track the products they buy that meet healthy eating guidelines. Last summer, Target-owned Shipt added the ability for customers to sort products by nearly 20 food attributes, like Keto and Atkins, vegan, and low-sodium diets, then record their preferences.