MISSISSAUGA, ON, November 30, 2021 – Walmart Canada is excited to announce plans to acquire Foodmaestro, a Toronto-based digital start-up that will offer customers more choice, transparency and personalized content when they shop online.
Foodmaestro is a Toronto-based data platform serving retailers and consumer package goods companies across Europe and North America with strong capability to turn substantial amounts of data into usable attributes. The platform delivers transparency and rich digital experiences for customers focused on health and diet and offers customized content activation, such as meal planning.
The integration is part of enhancing Walmart Canada’s e-commerce experience as it transforms to be the best and first omnichannel retailer for Canadian families. This acquisition would allow Walmart Canada to offer more personalization capability for its customers, such as highlighting safe products for those with food allergies or healthier options for people living with diabetes.
“We are very excited to welcome Foodmaestro to the Walmart Canada family,” said Horacio Barbeito, President and CEO, Walmart Canada. “Together we will continue elevating the online experience for our customers by sharing knowledge, investing in resources, people and product transparency. This enhancement to our online experience will allow our customers to make healthier personalized choices, which helps them live better.”
Foodmaestro’s digital platform processes over 14 million product attributes, 300,000 search requests and 6 million product validations in real-time each day. The service helps retailers who want to differentiate customer experience and deepen relationships with customers through enriched dietary information. Foodmaestro also enables its clients to provide their customers with greater product transparency and trusted information-beyond the label, through SmartLabel.
“Having spent the past several years pioneering digital transparency and helping shoppers around the world to find the right foods, we are thrilled to have been invited to join a family as prestigious as Walmart,” said Jaed Khan, Founder and CEO, Foodmaestro. “We have worked with Walmart for almost four years now and this investment signals, Walmart’s, continued commitment and increased focus to help provide consumers with the transparency they need to make informed decisions about the products they buy. We are tremendously excited about the future.”
Acquiring Foodmaestro will deepen Walmart Canadas’s talent bench by bringing in the Foodmaestro experts, including engineers and health and wellness talent.
“The acquisition of this talented team of experts from Foodmaestro is a big part of our transformation at Walmart Canada,” said John Bayliss, Executive Vice President, Chief Transformation Officer. “I am energized by what the future brings with our talented team of engineers and health and wellness resources working together to make the online experience even better for our customers.”
This is Walmart Canada’s first acquisition since the pandemic. It demonstrates the retailer’s commitment to innovation and continuing to transform the experience for its customers.
About Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada operates a chain of more than 400 stores nationwide serving 1.5 million customers each day. Walmart Canada's flagship online store, Walmart.ca is visited by more than 1.5 million customers daily. With more than 100,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada's largest employers and is ranked one of the country's top 10 most influential brands. Walmart Canada was recently recognized as a LinkedIn Top Company of 2021 and was also named one of Canada’s most popular brands (based on Google searches). Walmart Canada has made a commitment to regeneration – focusing on equitable opportunity, sustainability, community and ethics and integrity. Since 1994, Walmart Canada has raised over $500 million to support communities across Canada. Additional information can be found at walmartcanada.ca, facebook.com/walmartcanada and at twitter.com/walmartcanada.
About Foodmaestro
Foodmaestro is a leading data platform that enables retailers to execute digital strategies in support of increasing food transparency and empowering healthier eating. Foodmaestro enriches data to drive meaningful connections between CPGs, retailers and consumers to provide customers a simple, personalized shopping experience.
The Toronto based company serves retailers and CPGs across Europe, UK and North America, accelerating their digital strategy by delivering improved search and consumer personalization. Foodmaestro processes over 14 million product attributes, 300,000 search requests and 6 million product validations in real-time each day. Recognized as part of the top 100 agri-tech companies from FoodTech 500 2020 and a member of the European Union's EIT Rising Food Stars.
