The OLIO app is a revolutionary application that helps reduce global food waste by allowing users to share their surplus food with neighbors. The app has been gaining traction and has recently raised $43 million in a Series B funding round.
This article will provide a look into the app’s background, its mission, and the potential impact it could have on reducing global food waste.
Overview of OLIO
OLIO is a groundbreaking business-to-consumer (B2C) platform and mobile app that connects households with spare food items to their neighbors, cutting out the supply chain infrastructure associated with conventional middlemen. Founded in 2015, OLIO has since raised over $43 million in series B funding from Sequoia Capital, Fulcrum and Foresight.
OLIO’s mission is to reduce global food waste. Recent estimates show that nearly one-third of all food produced worldwide goes to waste yearly, amounting to billions of kilograms of CO2 emissions and trillions of dollars of lost revenue. With their company focused on lowering this number, OLIO launched its platform with a few core features.
The app allows users to take photographs and list free or preloved food items for sale or for free pickup through an online marketplace. It also lets users purchase products from local shops and get them delivered within minutes from nearby retailers, eliminating the need for delivery services like Uber Eats. Additionally, users can connect directly with nearby restaurants selling excess ingredients or food items at discounted prices towards the end of the day.
The OLIO platform emphasizes its commitment to sustainability initiatives by reducing packaging quantity and digitally tracking consumer purchases throughout the supply chain. In addition, thanks to their partnership with delivery logistics provider DPD Group, OLIO can ensure zero-emission deliveries in low carbon zones around Europe and North America and use renewable energy sources where possible in other locations worldwide.
With its growing customer base expanding day by day, thanks largely due to their investor vigor which supported product innovation such as artificial intelligence (AI) & photo detection technologies being employed in the safety & hygiene process; OLIO stands far ahead when it comes down to reducing global food waste ratio globally aiming towards a truly sustainable future!
Summary of OLIO’s $43M Series B raise
OLIO, a London-based tech startup, recently closed its Series B funding round with $43 million from leading investors. The company wants to expand its operations and create more impact in the food waste space. OLIO provides users with an app that directly connects homes and businesses with excess food to their community so it doesn’t go to the landfill. The company says the funding will accelerate product and analytics development and establish large partnerships with corporate food systems.
This latest financing round will bring the total amount raised by OLIO since it was founded in 2015 to £60 million (or approximately USD 78M). This kind of financial backing is needed for a business looking to positively impact global food waste issues. The International Union of Food Science & Technology estimates that one-third of all global food is wasted yearly, equaling 1.3 billion tonnes annually – nearly as much as all crops produced in sub-Saharan Africa combined!
OLIO hopes those numbers can become a thing of the past by providing a platform for communities to share excess food.
OLIO RAISES $43M SERIES B TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF GLOBAL FOOD WASTE
OLIO is a food-sharing app that connects neighbors and with local businesses so surplus food and other items can be shared rather than thrown away. The app has been gaining popularity and recently raised $43 million in its Series B funding round.
This article will discuss what OLIO is and how it works.
Benefits of using OLIO
OLIO is a free app connecting neighbors and local businesses, so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. The OLIO app aims to reduce the amount of edible food wasted worldwide. By connecting people and establishments with surplus goods, users can share these goods for free or at low cost. Not only does OLIO prevent food waste but it also helps to build a strong community amongst locals by connecting them.
There are various benefits for using the OLIO app:
- It reduces the environmental impacts of food waste, by preventing edible products from being thrown in landfills.
- It gives people access to quality and nutritious food which would otherwise have been wasted.
- Helping people save money while reducing their food waste footprint offers an opportunity to make a difference both economically and environmentally by connecting them within their community.
- Additionally, it provides a sense of satisfaction in knowing you’re helping others who may not be able to afford certain foods items by providing them free or at a low cost within your neighborhood.
- It also encourages individuals to think more carefully about how they shop so they purchase only what they need; therefore creating less wastage overall.
How OLIO works
OLIO is a leading digital platform that helps reduce global food waste and connects those with surplus food to their local communities. Individuals and businesses can share extra food without throwing away precious resources. The OLIO app acts as a marketplace connecting households, cafes, restaurants and grocery stores in need of help in reducing their food waste, with community members looking for free food or items at reduced prices.
By downloading the free OLIO app, users can connect with neighbors who have excess ingredients, pantry staples or even prepared meal they don’t need — all of which would have otherwise been thrown away. Community members can search for these items within the app and once they find something suitable, OLIO facilitates a connection between the two users to arrange a safe pick-up spot for the goods.
This easy way to reduce global food waste has proved popular: since its launch in 2015, OLIO has helped save more than 50 million meals from being thrown away – and it continues to add new users each day with more than 4 million downloads worldwide. In addition to helping local communities reduce unnecessary waste while improving access to affordable fresh produce and ingredients, OLIO also provides key insights into how individuals can help protect valuable resources worldwide by decreasing global carbon emissions by cutting down on excess transportation of edible items during distribution.
What is Food Waste?
Food waste is a global issue that affects every country in the world. It has become a crisis due to the millions of tons of edible food thrown away yearly.
The OLIO app is working hard to reduce this waste by helping people reduce food waste.
This article will explore the idea of food waste, its impact, and how the OLIO app is making a difference.
Causes of food waste
Food waste is an increasingly pressing problem that has global consequences. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, approximately one-third of all food produced annually is lost or wasted worldwide. In a rapidly growing population with limited resources, identifying and addressing the causes of food waste can help to reduce this figure and create a sustainable future for our planet.
Common causes of food waste can be divided into three categories: production, loss and consumption.
Production-related food waste occurs when produce is spoiled during harvesting, storage or transportation due to incorrect temperature control, moisture levels or inadequate packaging. Losses due to physical damage by pests or machinery could also make large quantities of produce unusable before it can reach consumers.
Losses in processing are also a contributing factor in global food waste. Industrial processes like sorting, grading and packaging often result in yield loss before goods enter the market. In addition, inefficient distribution networks may cause large quantities of fresh produce to expire before it reaches retailers or consumers – meaning much of what’s produced never makes it onto shelves or into mouths!
Finally, consumer behavior can add significant wastage to the global total – particularly in developed countries with high disposable incomes where we have become accustomed to buying more than we need. In addition, poor planning resulting in overstocking cupboards that lead to ‘use-by’ dates being missed on perishable items creates further untold amounts of preventable wastage on an individual level that contributes significantly overall when scaled up to a national level by country populations over time.
Impact of food waste
Food waste has a significant impact on both the environment and human wellbeing. This is because it takes large amounts of energy, water and arable land to produce food, yet upwards of one-third of all food produced goes to waste. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tons of wasted food and related emissions each year — making it a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions. For example, in 2014, the UK alone generated 17 million tons of excess food waste in landfills due to improper disposal or overproduction caused by consumer demand for too much variety or packaging that’s too big.
In addition to environmental strain, wasted food has a detrimental economic effect. In the US alone, households generate nearly 15% of their total income in annual grocery costs while throwing away $640 worth of groceries each year on average — an immense sum especially to those with lower incomes who are already more financially vulnerable. Global losses connected to spoilage are estimated in the trillions annually and could be prevented if better management systems were employed along the entire production chain from farm to fork.
As such, leveraging technology like The OLIO App (an app for sharing surplus groceries) can help reduce this issue by connecting those with surplus items with neighbors who could put them good use – ultimately reducing household spending while minimizing the amount that’s sent to landfills – meanwhile providing much-needed nutrition security and lowering greenhouse gas emissions globally.
OLIO’s Impact on Food Waste
The OLIO App is designed to reduce food waste by connecting local businesses and households to share food. In 2020, the company raised a $43M Series B to aid in its mission to tackle global food waste, and it has been making waves since.
In this article, we will discuss the impact of OLIO on food waste and how it is helping to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.
How OLIO is tackling food waste
OLIO is an app that helps tackle global food waste by enabling users to share their unopened or about-to-expire food with those in their local community. The app began in London in 2016, it has seen incredible international growth and recently raised $43 million in a Series B funding round.
The OLIO app makes it easy for local members to give away free edible food items such as packaged goods, produce, and even meals to people who need nutrition, reducing the amount of food thrown away and wasted simultaneously. This reduces money costs for those unable to purchase food while dramatically impacting the global negative effects of food waste.
This waste reduction is a major goal for OLIO as they work towards environmental sustainability amongst individuals and organizations. Through their growing network of ambassadors – nationally and internationally established to help spread the reach of OLIO’s mission – they encourage conscious consumerism within the marketplace by connecting providers directly with those who can access the product or redistributing it at limited cost or for free.
This mission does not stop here though; OLIO works with businesses ranging from small independent traders to large retail stores and supermarkets across multiple countries; such collaborations have included companies like Sainbury’s, Coca Cola, Kraft/Heinz, Nestlé/Purina, Porridge Pantry London and more. Through these collaborations they have successfully decreased the number of products these stores place in landfills due to date labels accompanying edibles distributed via traditional supply channels like supermarkets.
In addition through their partnerships with companies like Plan Zheroes – an organization specifically designed to discard excess produce – they donate any surplus rescue product to charities such as City Harvest which supports canteens serving disadvantaged people throughout London.
OLIO’s success stories
The OLIO App (OLIO) has become a global success story in the fight against food waste. The free app, available on Android and iOS devices, has over 1.2 million users across the globe. It enables users to easily arrange the donation and sharing of surplus food items from individuals (residents, shoppers, and retailers alike) to charities and their local community. OLIO has had notable success in achieving its mission to reduce global food waste with its series B funding round valuing the company’s total at $202 million -the second largest funding round ever for a British tech startup.
Since its launch in 2015, OLIO has facilitated over 9 million ‘food connections’ worldwide resulting in over 39 thousand metric tonnes of unspoiled food redistributed instead of winding up as landfill garbage. In October 2020 alone, it achieved 816 percent year-on-year growth while arranging 735 thousand ‘food connections’ that equated to 4 thousand tonnes of unspoiled food saved from disposal or incineration. In addition, on multiple occasions during 2020 and early 2021, OLIO developed key partnerships with leading retailers Tesco, Sainsbury’s (in Great Britain), Unilever etc…that have enabled many more people to donate excess or spare stock that would otherwise be discarded unnecessarily – typically reaching totals well into the half million mark monthly amongst participating sellers alone!
OLIO’s enormous shareability with organic online campaigns growing by as much as 25 percent every month proves why so many global leaders continue to add their support for the innovative platform’s success and sustainability into the future – reducing our collective impact on climate change by saving numerous natural resources lost annually by reducing our global carbon footprint directly through tackling global food waste head on!
Conclusion
The OLIO App is a great example of how technology can positively impact the world. The app has allowed users to connect and share resources, helping to reduce global food waste while connecting communities.
With their $43M Series B funding, OLIO is now well-suited to significantly impact global food waste.
tags = OLIO, RAISES $43M, GLOBAL FOOD WASTE, community sustainability app, $1.3trn of food waste created globally, food olio series vnv global 2.7kbutchertechcrunch, food series vnv global 2.7kbutchertechcrunch, Founded in 2015 by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One
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