Local Orbit is ramping up its hiring in preparation for a significant growth spurt this summer.
The downtown Ann Arbor-based local-food-ecosystem-software start-up has hired five people, expanding its staff to seven employees and two interns. "We have more than tripled out team, which is great," says
Erika Block, founder & CEO of
Local Orbit.
Local Orbit's technology helps connect restaurants and institutions with local producers in their local food ecosystem. Think
Eastern Market in Detroit and how it's center of a local food universe. The software platform provides a flexible, customizable suite of business tools that helps everything from farmer's markets to food co-ops streamline ordering, transaction processing, inventory management, logistics, integrated marketing and business analytics. It works for everything from fresh produce to craft food to local artwork.
"It's anything that people are producing or selling locally," Block says.
Local Orbit is currently being used in eight local food ecosystems in Michigan, Washington, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. It recently received an investment from the
Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and hopes to leverage that seed capital to grow into 20 new markets in the coming months and 80 within the next year.
"We're ramping up for a big spoke in users in the next six months," Block says.
Source: Erika Block, founder & CEO of Local Orbit
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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