Company Profile · Climate & Circular Infrastructure · Est. 2007
The Massachusetts company turning the food supermarkets can't sell into renewable natural gas - and building the pipes to do it at national scale.
Divert, Inc. - headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. Photographed here as the brand mark it carries across 25 states of collection routes and digesters.
The Dispatch
Roughly 40% of the food produced in the United States is never eaten. For most companies, a pallet of unsold yogurt is a disposal cost. For Divert, it is the raw material of an entire industry.
Divert, Inc. is an impact technology company on a plainly stated mission: prevent food from being wasted. Founded in 2007 in Concord, Massachusetts - originally under the name Feed Resource Recovery - it has spent close to two decades turning that mission from a slogan into physical infrastructure.
The company works with grocery and pharmacy retailers, along with food manufacturers, to handle the food that doesn't sell. It does three things in sequence. First, it uses data and technology to reduce how much food is wasted in the first place. Second, it recovers still-edible surplus and routes it to food banks and community organizations. Third, it takes what genuinely cannot be eaten and feeds it into anaerobic digestion facilities that produce carbon-negative renewable natural gas and a soil amendment for farms.
That sequence - captured in the company's trademarked shorthand, "Prevent, Provide, Power" - is what separates Divert from a conventional waste hauler. It is not simply moving trash from a store to a landfill. It is deciding, item by item, whether food should be sold, given away, or converted into energy, and it has built the trucks, the plants and the software to act on that decision.
By 2024, Divert reported processing more than 630 million pounds of unsold food in a single year, a 52% jump over the prior year. Cumulatively, it says it has processed more than 4.2 billion pounds of food since launch, and facilitated the donation of over 16 million meals.
"Wasted food is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Divert treats it not as a moral failing but as an infrastructure problem - and infrastructure is something you can build."
— The Divert thesis, in briefProducts & Services
Three stages, one platform. Each stage is a distinct product line - and a distinct revenue stream.
Software and data analytics, including RFID-based tracking, that help retailers cut shrink and stop food from being wasted before it happens. Prevention is the cheapest and lowest-emission outcome, so it comes first.
Logistics that route still-edible surplus from store shelves to food banks and community partners such as Feeding America. This is where the 16 million donated meals come from.
Integrated Diversion & Energy Facilities use proprietary depackaging and anaerobic digestion to turn non-donatable food into renewable natural gas and digestate soil amendment.
By The Numbers
Approximate figures reported by Divert · bars scaled to 2024 peak
The Market
More than 7,800 retail and industrial locations rely on Divert to manage unsold food. Anchor accounts include some of the largest names in American grocery and pharmacy.
The Edge
Prevention-software vendors like Afresh and Shelf Engine optimize grocery inventory but stop at the shelf. Traditional haulers and organics operators - Vanguard Renewables, Denali, Quest, the organics arms of Waste Management and Republic Services - handle disposal but not prevention. Divert spans the entire path, from the data that prevents waste to the digester that captures its energy.
Because Divert builds and operates its own Integrated Diversion & Energy Facilities, it doesn't just charge customers for a service - it also sells the renewable natural gas those plants produce through long-term offtake agreements. That second revenue stream is why energy majors, not just waste companies, are its partners.
"This partnership represents a first-of-its-kind model for the organics resource recovery industry, reflecting the success of Divert's commercially and operationally proven platform."
— On the 2026 Mitsubishi partnershipThe Money
Divert's capital story reads less like a software startup and more like an energy developer - large, milestone-based commitments tied to physical plants.
| Round / Deal | Amount | Year | Backers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth Equity | $100M | 2021 | Ara Partners, GIC, Ontario Power Generation |
| RNG Offtake | $175M (10-yr) | 2022 | BP |
| Infrastructure + Equity | $1B + $100M | 2023 | Enbridge |
| Infrastructure Credit | $90M+ | 2025 | Nuveen |
| Series C | Undisclosed — $1B+ valuation | 2026 | Mitsubishi Corporation |
Mitsubishi's 2026 investment carries preferred offtake rights for renewable natural gas and a pathway to bring that gas to Japan and other global markets.
The Record
Ryan Begin and Nick Whitman start the company in Massachusetts to recover value from wasted food.
A $20M anaerobic digestion facility in Compton, California marks the move into on-site energy.
New name, plus a second facility serving Stop & Shop in Freetown, Massachusetts.
Ara Partners, GIC and Ontario Power Generation back the next stage of expansion.
An energy major commits to buying Divert's renewable natural gas.
A landmark infrastructure commitment to fund the facility buildout.
Mitsubishi leads the round; Divert opens its Longview, Washington facility.
"Protect the Value of Food - prevent the waste, feed people first, and power the grid with what's left."
— Divert's operating philosophyUnder The Hood
Divert runs a B2B services model. Retail and industrial customers pay for end-to-end wasted-food management - prevention software, collection, donation logistics and disposal. On top of that, Divert sells the renewable natural gas produced at its own facilities through long-term offtake agreements with BP, Enbridge and Mitsubishi, and markets the leftover digestate as agricultural soil amendment.
Divert's expertise sits at an unusual intersection: reverse logistics, food-safety compliance, proprietary depackaging hardware, anaerobic digestion, and the data science to decide an item's best end-use in real time. Employing roughly 300 people, it spans corporate, technology and field/plant teams - the kind of blended workforce that heavy climate infrastructure demands.
Reader Questions
Divert helps retailers and food companies prevent, recover and process unsold food. It uses data and technology to reduce waste, routes edible surplus to food banks, and converts non-donatable food into renewable natural gas and soil amendment through anaerobic digestion.
Divert was founded in 2007 by Ryan Begin (CEO) and Nick Whitman (COO), originally under the name Feed Resource Recovery. It rebranded to Divert, Inc. in 2016.
Divert reached a valuation of over $1 billion following its April 2026 Series C financing round led by Mitsubishi Corporation.
Divert serves more than 7,800 retail and industrial locations, including Kroger, Albertsons, Target, CVS, Ahold Delhaize brands (Stop & Shop, Giant, Food Lion), Safeway and others.
At its Integrated Diversion & Energy Facilities, Divert depackages unsold food and processes it through anaerobic digestion, producing carbon-negative renewable natural gas and a digestate used as agricultural soil amendment.