Olio (app)
Olio is a mobile app for food-sharing, aiming to reduce food waste. It does this by connecting those with surplus food to those who need or wish to consume such food. The food must be edible; it can be raw or cooked, sealed or open.
Those donating surplus food can be individuals or companies such as food retailers, restaurants, corporate canteens, food photographers etc., and donations can take place on an ad-hoc or recurrent basis. For example some supermarket chains in the UK, including Tesco, the Midcounties Co-operative, Morrisons and Sainsbury's have piloted Olio as an 'online food bank' to donate food and to reduce their waste.
First launched in early 2015 by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, by October 2017 the company had raised $2.2 million in funding. Olio's Series A funding was led by Octopus Ventures, with investors such as Accel, Quadia and Quentin Griffiths contributing towards the $6 million that was raised. The Olio app had around 1.2 million registered users as of July 2019.
