UK-based food-sharing app Olio has secured $6 million in Series A funding. Octopus Ventures led the round with participation from other investors that included Accel and Quadia.
The U.K. startup offers a location-based app and website that lets you list and post a photo of unwanted food items to be shared with other people in the same neighborhood. That is food that you might otherwise throw away.
OLIO is specifically tackling food waste in the home and the local community, which in developed countries accounts for well over half of all food waste: the average UK family, for example, throws away £800 of food per year that could have been eaten – collectively adding up to £15bn.
Co-Founder & CEO Tessa Clarke said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be working with the Octopus team to unlock our vision of a world with hundreds of millions of hyper-local food sharing networks so that our most precious resources can be shared, not thrown away.” She added: “We are also extremely proud to have closed this round not only as one of a handful of female-founded businesses but also as part of the small but growing group of ‘tech for good’ companies.”
Co-Founder & COO Saasha Celestial-One said: “We’ve achieved an incredible amount with a very lean team, and can’t wait for this next stage when we can really start to unlock the true potential of OLIO.”
OLIO has quickly grown from a local initiative in North London to a global movement. This is in large part thanks to their unique model of over 20,000 brand Ambassadors who spread the word about OLIO in their local communities.
Source: Bizztor
