Farmstead, what is said to be the nation's first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital grocer that sources and delivers fresh, local food from farm to fridge in 60 minutes, raised an additional $2.2 million venture round from ARTIS Labs, San Francisco; Resolute Ventures, San Francisco; Y Combinator, Mountain View, Calif.; Red Dog Capital, San Francisco; and other investors, bringing the total raised to date to $7.5 million. The funding will help Farmstead set the stage for accelerated geographic expansion.

Farmstead, San Francisco, developed AI-powered predictive analytics models to accurately predict supply and demand in order to deliver fresh, local orders.

“Farmstead is turning the grocery game on its head, leveraging technology to obtain huge efficiency gains,” says Stuart Peterson, founder of ARTIS Labs. “The work Farmstead is doing has wide implications not only for consumer-facing grocery buying, but [also] for the whole supply chain. The fact that Farmstead is trending toward positive contribution margin already speaks volumes about the efficiency of their model. We’re really excited to be involved.”

“To replace a trip to the grocery store, so many things have to go right, from ordering the right inventory to last-mile delivery. Farmstead has cracked the code on making grocery delivery profitable and rapidly scalable; this could legitimately become a monster company,” adds Mike Hirshland, general partner at Resolute Ventures.

“We went into this business knowing that data would be the key to making our model sustainable,” says Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO of Farmstead. “Our experience in the Bay Area has shown us that it’s possible to locally source and deliver groceries profitably. In the last year, we have turned all the tricky operational parts of our business into digital products that abstract away much of the complexity and drive profitability on each order. With our playbook in hand, we’re already laying the groundwork for aggressive geographic expansion in 2019.”

Earlier this year, Farmstead introduced FreshAI, which brings its AI predictive analytics business management model to food industry companies across the food sector.

And, in October, Farmstead became what is said to be one of the first grocers in the country to make deliveries via autonomous vans.