UST Global Makes Strategic Investment into Tastry

UST Gloabl announced a strategic investment into Tastry, a sensory sciences company that uses advanced chemistry, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to match consumers to products they will love. UST Global and Tastry will bring this innovative technology to clients to help them identify shopper preferences.

Tastry has accurately taught a computer how to taste. The company has unleashed the barrier from direct-to-consumer selling by its sought-after technology that analyses products chemically to determine what flavors are present, even in tenuous forms. The cutting-edge technology introduced by Tastry matches the preferred flavors and combinations with its chemical analysis of products and swiftly identifies the flavors present in them. Considering this algorithm, it offers recommendations to the customers to which products to buy.

Retailers use the patent-pending method to optimize product mix, which increases sales, margins, and store loyalty. The technology serves brands and retailers by providing science-based suggestions for product development, inventory purchase, and direct-to-consumer recommendation. Tastry technology also provides science-based insights for business improvement strategies.

Commenting on the investment, Sunil Kanchi, Chief Investment Officer, UST Global said, “We are very excited to partner with Tastry – a true game-changer – completely innovating the way taste and flavor-based products are sold and actually matching products to people. They provide a unique, innovative way that guides selection based on recommendations that align with unique individual tastes.  The CEO of one of our clients – a global top retailer – told us this is one of the best innovations that he had recently seen.”

With a differentiated ability to match consumers to sensory-based products with a high degree of efficacy, Tastry can also reverse the process to provide manufacturers a chemistry ‘fingerprint’, in its entirety, for products that cater to an individual, or an aggregate of individuals. The manufacturer can use this fingerprint to guide the development of new or modified products.   

 “Having UST Global as our strategic investor and partner expands our reach and allows us to offer our unique offering to retailers looking for a true competitive advantage,” said Katerina Axelsson, CEO and Founder of Tastry. “We leverage sensory science and artificial intelligence to improve every aspect of a store’s sales.”

“Changing the way choices are made expands the possibilities for direct-to-consumer selling, a new way of thinking, and ultimately changes the customer experience,” added Kanchi.