Ahold Delhaize announces new investments through W23 Global to drive innovation in retail technologies. Through W23 Global, Ahold Delhaize invested in five new start-ups developing solutions for AI-enabled operations and sustainability in the grocery retail sector. July 21, 2026 - Ahold Delhaize is pleased to provide an update from W23 Global, the venture capital fund supported by five leading grocery retailers, including Ahold Delhaize, Tesco and Woolworths Group. Last year, Ahold announced four new investments in August and December, and this year the fund has completed five additional investments in the start-ups Moment Energy, Verse, Skyfire, Haast, and Cresta. This growing portfolio contributes to the broader ambition of helping retailers operate more sustainably and efficiently while delivering improved experiences for customers. Sustainability. Advancing circular energy solutions with Moment Energy. Included in this new round of investments is Moment Energy, a pioneer in repurposed battery energy storage systems (BESS) and the first company in North America to manufacture certified, commercial-scale systems using second-life electric vehicle batteries. Built on the principle that every battery deserves a second life, Moment Energy's platform extends EV battery lifespan, preventing premature recycling and landfill waste while enabling more sustainable energy use. Its cost-effective BESS solutions deliver reliable and flexible energy storage at scale across grocery retail infrastructure as well as in settings including data centers, hospitals, factories and microgrids. As Ingrid Maes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of W23 Global, noted, "Moment Energy is meaningfully advancing what's possible in sustainable retail infrastructure and supply chain circularity. As grocery operations face rising energy costs and increasing demand pressures, Moment Energy's second-life storage systems give retailers a faster, cleaner path to reliable backup power, while significantly reducing peak-demand utility costs." Optimizing energy portfolios with Verse. W23 Global is also investing in Verse, an energy intelligence platform that helps large-scale energy consumers manage increasingly complex energy portfolios. Its core product, Aria(TM), centralizes utility bills, contracts, and power purchase agreements across thousands of sites, providing a unified view of energy data. This enables retailers to compare forecasts to actual performance across stores, distribution centers and other physical assets, make smarter procurement decisions, and optimize costs and risk. With the addition of Dispatch Intelligence, Verse also orchestrates on-site energy resources in real time, helping AI infrastructure come online faster in a constrained grid environment. AI-enabled operations. Enabling secure agent-driven commerce with Skyfire. Expanding its focus to the emerging landscape of AI-driven commerce, W23 Global is investing in Skyfire, which is building a cross-ecosystem trust and permission layer for the agentic economy. The platform provides a secure identity and financial stack that enables retailers to distinguish trusted AI shopping agents from malicious automation. Through verified "Know Your Agent" (KYA) credentials and integrated payment capabilities, Skyfire allows businesses to safely open their digital channels to autonomous shoppers. "Skyfire is providing the critical infrastructure required to turn the rise of autonomous AI into a new frontier of growth for retailers," said Ingrid Maes, CEO and CIO of W23 Global. "By upgrading traditional commerce stacks with a dedicated agent identity and payment layer, Skyfire provides the key to unlock high-intent agent demand while shielding systems from the surge of bot-driven cyber risk. Skyfire provides the infrastructure retailers need to capture and process automated transactions securely and instantly." Scaling compliant marketing with Haast. Among its latest investments, W23 Global is investing in Haast, an AI-native platform designed to automate marketing compliance and brand protection for consumer industries. Founded in 2023, Haast supports retailers in managing compliance across the full content lifecycle, from pre-publication review to continuous monitoring of live channels. Operating across text, image, video, and audio, the platform helps ensure consistent, compliant messaging while accelerating approval processes. It helps marketing, legal, and compliance teams save time, reduce risk, and speed up content approvals in a complex regulatory environment. Elevating customer experience with Cresta. W23 Global also announces its investment in Cresta, a unified platform in human-centric generative AI for contact centers. Cresta's platform combines autonomous AI agents with real-time coaching and conversation intelligence for human teams. Originating from the Stanford AI Lab and led by the co-founder of Google's AI Contact Center, the company helps teams work more effectively by turning conversational data into live agent assistance. Their scalable technology has already delivered measurable operational results for global enterprises, with over 80 businesses as customers. As Ingrid Maes, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of W23 Global, noted, "Customer service has become a critical point of differentiation for retailers. The opportunity is no longer simply to automate interactions, but to deliver faster, more personalized and more consistent customer experiences while fundamentally improving the economics of service. We believe Cresta is one of the companies best positioned to help retailers achieve both." About W23 Global. W23 Global is a global grocery retail venture capital fund backed by five leading grocery retailers: Tesco (UK, ROI, Europe), Ahold Delhaize (U.S., Europe, Indonesia), Woolworths Group (Australia, New Zealand), Shoprite Group (Africa), and Empire Company Limited (Canada). W23 Global invests in innovative start-ups and scale-ups developing technology to transform grocery retail. Its work focuses on supporting companies that build solutions with practical application across markets, helping advance the way retailers operate and serve customers while addressing sustainability challenges. As technology continues to shape the future of grocery retail, W23 Global remains focused on solutions that make a tangible difference for both customers and retailers.

World's largest EV battery repurposing facility opens in Surrey. Published 9:30 am Wednesday, June 24, 2026 Moment Energy now operates what the company calls the world's largest EV battery repurposing facility at a Bridgeview industrial building. The new facility, dubbed Megafactory 1, transforms retired EV batteries into "cost-effective, rapidly deployable energy storage systems that support critical infrastructure, including data centres, hospitals, factories and microgrids," the company boasts. At 12850 112B Ave., a ribbon-cutting event Tuesday (June 23) celebrated work to bring domestic battery energy storage manufacturing capacity online six weeks after the project was announced. Investors, government and industry reps gathered at the Surrey factory, expected to produce 1 GWh of battery energy storage systems by 2030, creating more than 100 direct jobs and supporting more than 1,000 indirect jobs across B.C., according to Moment Energy. As demand for electricity continues to surge, driven by AI, data centres, electrification and grid modernization, millions of EV batteries on North American roads are expected to be retired in coming years. "Moment Energy addresses both challenges by turning retired batteries into highly scalable energy storage systems that offer an immediate solution to energy shortages," a company news release trumpets. Said to be the first and only company building commercial-scale battery energy storage from second-life EV batteries, Moment Energy was founded in Vancouver in 2020. "We announced this project six weeks ago. Today it's operational," said Edward Chiang, company co-founder and CEO. "Demand for energy storage is accelerating, and so is the supply of retired EV batteries. We show that the right technology can enable North America to re-onshore domestic manufacturing in weeks, not decades, creating thousands of jobs and economic prosperity." The opening follows Moment Energy's recent US$40 million Series B financing round, bringing total funding to more than US$100 million and marking the next phase of the company's expansion. On June 24, NorthX Climate Tech (NorthX) announced a $3-million investment in Moment Energy, a third investment in the company, totalling nearly $4.5 million since 2022. "Moment Energy was one of NorthX's first investments," said Sarah Goodman, NorthX president and CEO. "Today, four founders who started in half a garage in Surrey are opening a megafactory with a team of over 80 people, creating great careers, giving batteries a second life, and proving that with the right support, climate technology can be built and scaled from British Columbia." An investment of $4.9 million was made by Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan) via the federal Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure.