The San Francisco–based private equity firm’s majority investment in Beaverton, Ore.-based Trustwell reflects growing demand, from governments and consumers, for greater transparency across food supply chains.
“Visibility into the foods we eat, and their ingredients, continue to grow in importance,” said TPG’s Akash Pradhan.
Trustwell’s products include AskReg, an AI-powered compliance assistant built to simplify complex labeling and compliance questions, based on data sourced from the US Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Agriculture and other global regulators.
Trustwell says its software leverages 40 years of data on more than 145,000 food ingredients.
PE exit
TPG invested through its TPG Rise Funds, which manage roughly $29 billion in impact assets.
Upon closing of the deal, The Riverside Company will exit its investment in Trustwell. The New York-based private equity investor invested in the company three years ago before it rebranded as Trustwell, following the merger of ESHA Research’s nutritional analysis and label development solution and FoodLogicQ’s supply chain management software.
Riverside’s Brian Sauer said the firm helped Trustwell launch AI-driven allergen alerts and traceability tools compliant with the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Healthy eating
The Rise Fund’s portfolio of tech-enabled food and health enterprises includes Livekindly Collective, a group of plant-based food companies launched five years ago by impact investment firm Blue Horizon.
Little Leaf Farms is a Massachusetts-based producer of lettuce grown in controlled environments.
San Francisco-based Foodsmart provides telenutrition and foodcare to more than two million Medicaid and other health plan members, through a network of registered dietitians.
TPG did not respond to requests for comment.
