We are delighted to announce that Simpleweb portfolio company OLIO has raised $2.2m to bring their food sharing app to the masses. Investors include Accel, Quadia, Mustard Seed, Quentin Griffiths of ASOS, Achica and FarmDrop, and Wayne Churchill of MDNX and Easynet.
We first teamed up with OLIO in the Spring of 2015, investing in the company, developing the app and acting as their virtual CTO. In early 2016, we helped OLIO hire their first two developers and worked closely with them in our offices to ensure a smooth transition. OLIO now have 9 full-time employees and the app is available worldwide.
The new funding will carry the business into 2018 with a particular focus on OLIO’s “Food Waste Heroes Programme” which matches OLIO volunteers with local businesses – such as supermarkets and bakeries – to collect their unsold food at the end of the day and redistribute it via the app.
Co-Founder Tessa Cook said: “This is a major vote of confidence in our long-term vision to enable hundreds of millions of hyper-local food sharing networks across the globe. OLIO provides a fun and engaging way for neighbours to connect with each other and solve the problem of waste – and food waste specifically – from the ground up. It’s been such an exciting journey so far and we can’t wait to execute on our plans for 2017.”
Sonali De Rycker, General Partner at Accel, added: “From the start we were drawn to the enormity of the problem that OLIO addresses, and are backing Tessa, Saasha and the team to unlock the huge potential of mobile-enabled hyper-local sharing. We look forward to working with the team to help make OLIO a great success.”
Find out more about Simpleweb’s growing investment portfolio at simpleweb.co.uk/portfolio.
If you’d like to discuss your startup or project, get in touch with Simpleweb today.
