Markets Wired

Minneapolis, MN, October 02, 2019 –(PR.com)– Spoonshot, a food AI company that is raising the bar for insight-led innovation, today emerges after 18 months of R&D to help Product Developers with early-stage product development and trends research that is forward-looking and centered around intelligent exploration as a means to identify novel opportunities.

The Spoonshot platform leverages machine learning and food science infused algorithms to deliver personalized insights, predict trends, and identify emerging product opportunities for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, that have long relied upon dated research, stagnant methodologies, and limited data-sets.

One example of a prediction created by Spoonshot’s AI is a new product in the functional beverage category, an Ashwagandha (Winter Cherry) wellness drink, flavored with Jasmine Flowers. Interest in adaptogens, like Ashwagandha, Maca, and Holy Basil is on the rise among food and beverage formulators as consumers are looking for ways to reduce stress, improve sleep, and enhance their mood. Ashwagandha can help with all those things. The anti-inflammatory properties of Ashwagandha along with the exotic flavor of Jasmine Flowers make this combination the next exciting nootropic beverage sensation.

To produce this intelligence, the platform analyzes billions of diverse data points from over 900 sources in the domain of food. The technology focuses explicitly on long-tail data as stronger signal indicators of future trends are detected in this data. The types of data processed include scientific research, food communities, niche ecommerce portals, media platforms, and data on more than 7.8M CPG products, menus, and recipes. Spoonshot is already working with over 40 companies that joined its beta program, 15 of which are $Bn+ businesses, for example, Cargill.

“At Cargill, we are always looking for innovative approaches that bolster our existing analytical capabilities and help us develop relevant and forward-looking insights we can bring to our customers,” says Cory Lommel, Consumer Insights Director at Cargill. “We see Spoonshot’s technology as an enabler, one that can unlock value through the platform’s unique data-set and usability.”

In coordination with its launch today, Spoonshot released a “2019 Peels Trends” Report, that outlines the tremendous opportunity fruit and vegetable peels have in the consumer product space.

A complimentary copy of the report can be downloaded here.

Highlights of key trends from the report:

– Banana peel flour is emerging as a viable substitute for wholemeal flour for bread making.

– Apples, potato, and banana peels, as well as watermelon rind, have the potential to emerge as functional and exciting foods products

– Peel-based products can be sold directly to the consumer or be used as simple boosts to teas, soups, smoothies, desserts, and a range of other dishes, akin to seasoning.

Founded by Kishan Vasani (ex-JUST EAT) and Sai Sreenivas Kodur (ex-Zomato), Spoonshot enters the rapidly evolving CPG industry that is witnessing a paradigm shift with regard to the consumer purchasing landscape in the age of digital. This means that it’s harder than ever before to track customer needs and tastes. Leveraging food science, machine learning, NLP and computer vision techniques, Spoonshot’s goal is to promote organic intelligence, making people more capable and productive through technology. Now Product Developers and R&D Chefs at CPG companies can connect the dots to make high confidence decisions that cater to evolving consumer needs at an unprecedented scale.

Spoonshot is backed by leading accelerator Techstars. “Spoonshot’s platform unlocks future needs for big consumer packaged goods companies. Enterprises that work with Spoonshot will have a competitive advantage over their peers when it comes to innovation. It will ensure that they don’t miss that next big trend,” says Brett Brohl, Managing Director at Techstars, Farm To Fork.

“The launch of our platform is the culmination of one and a half years of intensive investigation into the challenges and opportunities in the world of innovation insights for the food & beverage industry,” adds Kishan Vasani, CEO & Co-founder at Spoonshot. “Our platform directly tackles the biggest issues faced by anyone who has been tasked with understanding emerging trends and translating them into products that consumers desire. We’re putting an end to rear-view insights produced by sleeping giants, and are leading the charge in a new era of personalized intelligence.”

Spoonshot platform is available at www.spoonshot.com.

About Spoonshot

​Spoonshot equips the food and beverage industry with unprecedented foresight of emerging market needs. Spoonshot’s proprietary food science infused algorithms connect disparate data sets, to deliver personalized insights, predict trends, and identify novel opportunities. Today, Spoonshot is supporting the world’s best-known brands in meeting the future needs of its customers. For more information, please visit www.spoonshot.com.