The funding round was led with fintech Nyca with the participation of PayPal Ventures, EO Ventures, as well as angel investor Apoorva Mehta, the founder of Instacart. Forage will mainly use the funds to develop its product and accelerate hiring to meet the high demand for the company’s solution.
According to statistics, one in eight Americans receive governmental assistance to buy groceries, and the numbers may increase due to the current post-pandemic economy and the recent inflation rates. And, while over 250,000 brick and mortar locations across the country accept SNAP EBT benefits with EBT in-store, only a fraction of them have been approved for online EBT, which makes food access a problem for those who lack a mean of transportation.
There are over 42 million recipients of SNAP benefits and many of them are homebound, lack transportation, or live in remote areas without easy access to grocery stores. Online stores that receive food stamps and ensure delivery nation-wide would be a much more convenient solution for those who need to use them.
The company assembled an in-house team of EBT and payments experts and has recently launched its first Shopify app that offers online EBT payment processing to Shopify’s ecosystem of merchants. Forage also works with numerous well-known grocers to help them accelerate the acceptance of online SNAP EBT and potentially reach millions of new customers.
The company is tackling a critical problem for consumers and merchants, as more groceries are bought online, especially by those who lack a mean of transportation, are physically unable to move to in-store locations or want to protect themselves during the pandemic.
With the Forage solution, merchants will be able to support through every step of the USDA approval process, from documentation preparation to system engineering, testing, and deployment, making it easy for new merchants to accept EBT online.
Forage aims to give merchants access to a market worth USD 200 billion, while enabling the 42 million Americans receiving benefits to spend them online in a safe, secure, and seamless manner. The solution created by the company aims to democratise the access to government benefits and help underserved Americans gain easy access to food and supplies by spending their SNAP EBT benefits in online stores.
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