It’s been a rough couple of years financially for even long-established businesses trying to survive in the world of COVID – imagine being a startup. But while the pandemic has taken its toll, some “newbies,” particularly those tackling food waste, are experiencing healthy funding flow. Private investors committed about $4 billion in 2021 alone to address a problem that’s heavily on the minds of policy makers and, increasingly, consumers, with operations like Elemental Excelerator among those who see the emerging business of diverting food from landfill and putting it to use as a very investible market.