$6 million in seed funding to tackle produce losses

Loamy, a Los Angeles-based technology startup developing operational software for produce growers, packers and distributors, has raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Zeal Capital Partners. Announced on October 27, the investment brings the company's total funding to $10 million.

The company's technology aims to address a costly problem in the fresh produce supply chain: shipments rejected by buyers because they fail to meet agreed quality requirements.

According to Loamy, growers often have only around 24 hours to find an alternative buyer once a shipment is rejected after dispatch. In many cases, the produce ends up being discarded because there is insufficient time to identify another destination.

Loamy says its platform can identify potential quality issues several weeks before shipment, allowing growers to redirect affected fruit towards processors or juice manufacturers rather than risk losing an entire load. The company claims its technology has already reduced product rejection rates by 50% among its customers.

Retailers impose detailed requirements covering colour, size, testing results, volumes and delivery schedules. Even adverse weather conditions can cause otherwise marketable produce to fall outside those specifications.

The consequences can be substantial. Freezing temperatures last winter reportedly destroyed approximately 20% of the crop for some strawberry growers in Central Florida, while other agricultural products faced increased risks of surface scarring and reduced sizes, as previously reported by FreightWaves.

Charles Julius, Loamy's co-founder and chief executive officer, highlighted the financial exposure facing strawberry producers. He explained that growers can invest approximately $35,000 per acre and still lose a shipment worth $40,000 simply because they were unaware that the fruit would fail to meet a buyer's requirements.

Replacing fragmented rejection processes with digital monitoring

The handling of rejected agricultural shipments remains heavily dependent on manual communication. Loamy says that growers, distributors and receivers still rely on WhatsApp messages, spreadsheets and lengthy email exchanges to coordinate decisions when produce fails inspection.

Under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act regulations, a receiver generally has up to eight hours after being notified that a truckload has arrived to reject the shipment. This period can be extended when the receiver is awaiting a federal inspection, as provided under 7 CFR 46.2.

Loamy intends to modernise this process through a combination of satellite imagery, infrared technology and artificial intelligence.

Its software monitors individual agricultural field lots using satellite data, while infrared analysis identifies early signs of browning that may not yet be visible to the human eye.

The platform also evaluates produce quality through photographs taken at different stages of the supply chain, including receiving, cooling and shipping. In addition, it can process supplier documents received by email, analyse inspection forms and operate on smartphones or tablets even when there is no cellular connection.

This approach is designed to give supply chain operators a more complete picture of product condition, helping them make decisions before quality problems translate into rejected deliveries.

Traceability function assists in regulatory compliance

In addition to quality monitoring, Loamy’s platform offers traceability, tracing each order back to the original field lot.

The system uses case labels linked to the Produce Traceability Initiative and maintains records required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Traceability Rule, or FSMA 204.

The rule applies to products on the Food and Drug Administration’s Food Traceability List and includes such items as fresh leafy vegetables like lettuce.

Lot codes and related information must be maintained by businesses that handle covered products during harvesting, packing, shipping and receiving, which are critical supply chain activities.

If there’s a foodborne illness outbreak or a product recall, companies will have to provide the FDA the required traceability information in a sortable spreadsheet within 24 hours.

But the regulation’s implementation has been delayed. And, under orders from Congress, the FDA won’t enforce the rule until July 20, 2028.

The delay provides firms with more time before enforcement comes into play, though regulatory requirements are likely to make digital traceability relatively more important.

Demand for supply chain technology fuels revenue growth

Loamy has been gaining serious commercial traction over the past year. Annual recurring revenue grew 30+ times and net revenue retention surpassed 500%. The company also said it had zero customer churn.

It did not reveal its actual revenue figures or the number of customers using its platform.

Its customers include lettuce growers and distributors trading in products such as fresh produce, meat and grains. Loamy also adds that customers usually get their money's worth in the first month of using the software.

The company says rising financial pressure and a shortage of workers are key reasons for the food sector to adopt artificial intelligence more quickly.

In the funding announcement, Qadree said tighter margins and workforce constraints are pushing food industry businesses to adopt AI-based solutions faster.

Food waste remains a major challenge in the supply chain.

The investment comes amid ongoing problems with food waste for agricultural producers, distributors and retailers.

Loamy says that 40 percent of food is lost between agricultural production and final consumption, with about 75 percent of these losses occurring before products reach retail outlets.

Additional context comes from the data in ReFED’s 2026 U.S. Food Waste Report. The organization estimated that some 70 million tons of food in the United States, or about 29% of the nation’s food supply, went unsold and uneaten in 2024.

ReFED also points out that consumer-facing businesses and households are the largest generators of this waste.

Loamy aims to detect quality issues earlier on in the distribution chain, so that commercially usable agricultural products do not go into the waste bin, just because they no longer meet the needs of their first buyers.

Founders’ background from Procore, Motive

Loamy was founded in 2024 by Charles Julius and Jason Pesek, using experience from enterprise software, mobile platforms and operational technology.

Julius previously worked on Procore’s application marketplace before coming to Motive, where he led an enterprise unit that focused on new vertical markets.

Its co-founder, Jason Pesek, was previously Motive’s head of product for its core platform and mobile.

Other investors in the latest funding round included Supply Change Capital, Amplify and Slauson & Co. LA with lead investor Zeal Capital Partners.

“We’re going to use the new capital to expand our engineering and go-to-market teams, speed up the development of our AI-powered products and move into more food categories,” Loamy said.

For Julius, rejected shipments ultimately boils down to access to information at the right time. “When growers can pick up on quality problems weeks in advance, they have a much better shot at finding buyers willing to take the produce,” he says.

Why this matters: For growers, finding out on the receiving dock that a shipment doesn’t meet buyer specs can turn a potentially valuable harvest into a major financial loss. Loamy is pitching its technology as a way to intervene earlier, helping growers divert produce before the rejection happens. Its claims of lower rejection rates and revenue growth have not been supported with publicly disclosed baseline figures. Meanwhile, the FDA’s FSMA 204 traceability requirements may lead to greater adoption of digital supply chain solutions, but it won’t be enforced until July 20, 2028.