Our Journey So Far
May 2023: The Journey Begins
Backed by Nesta & Founders Factory, our founders Harry and Lucy launched the first ever ‘Martee’s’ food store in May 2023, on a mission to bring fresh, healthier food options into underserved public spaces. This marked the start of our journey in the retail world.
August 2023: The Fresh Food Optimisation Problem
Selling fresh sandwiches, salads and meals across London, we faced constant stock problems - continually running out of key items on shelf (missing sales) whilst simultaneously producing unsustainable levels of food waste.
We realised forecasting demand for fresh produce would become a high-stakes barrier to our growth, that would require data science resources to fix. Most grab-and-go food businesses like ours, though, did not have access to this sort of thing.
So, supported by our day-one backers, we called in some skilled technical help to see if we could develop a solution ourselves…
After several months in development, our in-house demand forecasting algorithm led Martee's retail stores to operational profitability, seeing an 81% reduction in waste while boosting top-line revenue. We realised we were onto something.
January 2024: The Bold Pivot
After extensive research with over 70 food businesses, we made the bold decision to pivot to pursue demand forecasting - unlocking fresh produce at scale for other food businesses encountering the barriers we had, through the power of data science.
Introducing Martee AI—the fresh demand forecasting product for grab-and-go food businesses. Built by our expert in-house team, our technology reduces waste and boosts revenue for businesses through the power of AI.
Throughout the year we launched and scaled with customers in the UK and France, evolving our product and showing impressive results - proving reductions in waste by 25% and growing sales by 6% in a controlled scientific trial, saving customers tens of thousands of pounds in our first months.
2025 Objectives: Scaling our Impact
As our product evolves, we’re focused on meeting the needs of fresh grab-and-go fridges across retail, concessions, food-to-go, coffee shops, leisure and hotel sectors.
Why choose Martee AI
Deciding what goes on the shelf in a fresh food-to-go business is often guesswork, leading to high waste or poor availability—both of which hurt profitability and growth. Striking the right balance is essential, but predicting demand is too complex for the human brain. That’s where Martee AI comes in.Our algorithm analyses sales data alongside key factors like weather and trends to accurately predict what you should sell.
Let us take the guesswork off your plate so you can
SELL MORE, WASTE LESS
Harry Slagel
Co-Founder & CEO of martee ai
The Martee magic
"As former food-to-go operators ourselves, we understand the intricacies of working in the challenging fresh food sector.
Here at Martee AI, our mission is to make it as easy for businesses to sell fresh food as it is to stock long-life products, taking the burden out of forecasting and wider operational processes.
I'm so excited for what our technology can do for businesses in this growing industry."
Lucy Adams
Co-Founder & COO at martee ai
Backed By
