Today, nearly three-quarters of everything Americans consume is processed, packaged, shipped, and stored under refrigeration. But we rarely think about the journey our food takes before we consume it. Put in perspective, the artificial cryosphere we've built is already 5.2 billion cubic feet in size, representing a third pole that rivals the expanses of both North and South Poles.
In 2023, U.S. companies across food, pharmaceuticals, and sciences shipped approximately 3 billion perishable parcels, incurring over $76 billion in warehousing, packaging, and transportation costs. Due to inefficiencies and spoilage-related refunds, these costs accounted for more than 40% of total sales.
Notably, over 13% of all food is lost due to inadequate refrigeration, revealing a massive opportunity to improve the cold chain and benefit up to 950 million people annually through better food availability.
The cold chain’s impact extends beyond food—it is a critical lifeline for public health. Temperature-controlled environments ensure the longevity of life-saving medicines and sensitive chemicals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly a quarter of all vaccines arrive at their destinations in a degraded state due to cold chain breakdowns. A single temperature miscalibration can render entire shipments unusable, resulting in devastating losses for shippers and leaving communities without essential supplies.
Faced with these challenges, we recognized the complexity and scale of the cold chain problem—and the opportunity for a breakthrough solution.
Enter Coldcart, a company on a mission to revolutionize perishable logistics. Founded by Jason Park, who previously scaled Allstate Identity Protection from zero to $100 million ARR, and Matt Salzberg, founder of Blue Apron, Coldcart aims to solve the long-standing issues of cold delivery. Early backers include industry veterans from Marley Spoon, Home Chef, Y Combinator, and Bain & Company.
The idea for Coldcart sparked when Jason realized something crucial in conversation with Matt Salzberg: the challenge of delivering perishable goods had never truly been solved at Blue Apron. Instead, it was a problem that was “band-aided” along the way because it required so much capital and labor to tackle effectively.
Despite how daunting the problem seemed, the stakes were high. Spoilage not only led to significant financial losses for shippers around the world, but it also meant that customers were missing out on essential items. Even with all the breakthroughs we've seen in logistics over the past decade, the delivery of perishable goods remains a deeply flawed system. And that’s what drove Jason’s passion to build Coldcart.
The cold chain—the process that temperature-sensitive products undergo from production to consumer—has three main stages:
Throughout these stages, precise temperature monitoring and real-time routing are essential for minimizing spoilage and ensuring on-time deliveries. Coldcart’s technology integrates these processes, providing end-to-end control that enables real-time optimization, tracking, and monitoring of perishable shipments. This approach reduces shipping costs by 15-50%, decreases refundable shipments by 40-60%, and accelerates network scaling by 3-5x.
Coldcart distinguishes itself through an asset-light model that focuses on software-driven solutions rather than physical infrastructure. Unlike logistics giants like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx, which manage extensive warehouses and fleets, Coldcart partners with established logistics providers to deliver its services. This allows Coldcart to remain nimble, adapting quickly to changing market conditions without the burden of owning physical assets.
By specializing in perishable logistics, Coldcart addresses the unique challenges that asset-based players and general logistics software often overlook. While third-party logistics (3PL) providers like DHL and C.H. Robinson offer broad services, they lack Coldcart’s deep focus on temperature-sensitive goods. Similarly, existing software platforms like Grip and Shipfare provide general logistics optimization but lack the precision Coldcart offers for managing temperature-controlled shipments.
These factors collectively give Coldcart a substantial competitive edge, positioning it to address the long-standing challenges in perishable logistics more effectively than both asset-based players and general logistics software platforms.
Our decision to invest in Coldcart was driven by a belief in the vision and expertise of Jason and Matt. Through detailed conversations and diligence, we saw their deep understanding of the cold chain’s complexities and their ability to address these challenges with innovative technology. Able to clearly articulate the industry’s pain points and how Coldcart’s solutions will make a tangible difference, the ColdCart team has proven to be adept storytellers.
We are thrilled to support the Coldcart team in their mission to fix a broken system that has long plagued the logistics of perishable goods. With ColdCart’s technology, the future of cold chain logistics looks promising—one where critical shipments reach their destinations in peak condition, ensuring both customer satisfaction and public well-being.
