Investors’ Cash Follows Green Food Trend, Boosts Platform Matching Producers with Buyers

South Korean entrepreneur Hoshik Shin has raised over $10 million to take his startup to the next level. The goal: improving business for green and ethical farmers from developing countries by linking them directly with food buyers.

Shin set up his online marketplace Tridge in 2015 in Seoul to benefit ethical agriculture and make green products more accessible to local and international buyers. The system has a network of 60,000 suppliers that sell more than 1,000 sustainable food products – such as peppermint leaves from Egypt and peanuts from Nigeria – to 40,000 buyers around the world.

“At the moment, suppliers in emerging countries are so restricted to just meeting local buyers,” says Shin to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Through our platform, they can meet foreign buyers more easily … prices will improve and that gives bigger benefits to both farmers and their employees.”