Helios AI has raised a $3 million strategic financing round from W23 Global as the company expands its technology for analyzing food security, climate and geopolitical risks across global agricultural markets.
Alongside the investment, Helios AI launched its Hunger Exposure Index, added Helga Flores Trejo to its advisory board and unveiled a new company website, according to an announcement from co-founder and CEO Francisco Martin-Rayo.
W23 Global is backed by five major grocery retailers, giving the investment strategic significance for a company operating at the intersection of food supply, climate risk and global commerce.
Martin-Rayo said the grocery industry often experiences supply and pricing shocks before their broader effects become visible elsewhere in the economy.
Helios AI is attempting to provide earlier intelligence around those risks by analyzing the factors that determine whether countries and markets can withstand future disruptions to the global food system.
The company’s newly launched Hunger Exposure Index is designed to assess which countries may be better positioned to absorb the next food shock and which could be more vulnerable.
Helios AI argues that global agricultural production alone does not determine food security.
Martin-Rayo pointed to a disconnect between record global cereal harvests and continuing acute hunger, saying 266 million people still face acute hunger despite substantial global food availability.
The issue, according to Helios AI, increasingly centers on whether countries can afford and access food when harvests, currencies, climate conditions or geopolitical relationships change.
The company is also monitoring emerging agricultural risks including El Niño and potential pressure on the 2027 crop, with Martin-Rayo noting that the window for governments and humanitarian organizations to pre-position resources can close months before shortages become visible.
Helios AI also added Helga Flores Trejo to its advisory board.
Martin-Rayo described Flores Trejo as bringing approximately 30 years of experience spanning food security, climate and geopolitics, including work involving governments and humanitarian organizations.
The $3 million strategic investment gives Helios AI additional resources as it develops tools intended to provide retailers, governments and other organizations with earlier insight into changes affecting agricultural supply and food security.
KEY QUOTES:
“W23 is backed by five of the world’s leading grocery retailers, the people who feel supply and price shocks before almost anyone else. Having them in our corner means a lot.”
“Availability was never the problem. Whether a country can buy the difference when its harvest fails is.”
“The Hunger Exposure Index scores who can withstand the next food shock, and who cannot.”
Francisco Martin-Rayo, Co-Founder and CEO of Helios AI
