The Unicorn that won't expire: Apeel raises $250M for food preservation

Bringing sex apeel to food waste solutions... Apeel Sciences is like an anti-aging cream, but for your avocados. And it just hit a $1B+ valuation after raising $250M from investors like Oprah, Singapore's government, and Katy Perry (waiting for the invite to the investor conference);

• Today, 40% of food grown goes to waste, according to Apeel. And it's worse in the corona-conomy: with restaurants and colleges closed, milk is being dumped and veggies are turning to mulch.
• Apeel offers a food-preserving solution: Its proprietary plant-based product acts like a 2nd peel on your fruit's skin, slowing water loss and oxidation (aka, rotting). That can triple shelf-life of produce - so far this year, Apeel saved 20M pieces of fruit.
• The catch: Right now, it's only "apeeling" avocados, asparagus, lemons, and limes. Eventually, it could expand to the wider world of fruits and veggies.

You can't buy Apeel (directly)... Apeel's customers are big grocery chains like Kroger that are looking to shrink their "shrinkage" — aka, how many fruits they have in store vs. how many they can actually sell (no one wants the mush avocado). By reducing food inventory that gets wasted, Trader Joe's can save big money.