Advising community food sharing app OLIO on $43 million funding round

We have advised UK startup and community food sharing app OLIO on its Series B funding round, which raised US$43 million for the waste reduction platform.

OLIO started in 2015 with the goal of cutting food waste. Since then the app has skyrocketed in popularity with five million users internationally, who have shared 25 million portions of food and 3 million other household items, otherwise destined for the bin. 

The app-based platform allows users to post photos of unwanted or surplus food and other household items, then share these with their neighbours for others to claim.

We have acted for OLIO on all of its funding rounds, including its US$6 million Series A in 2018.

This latest funding round included investment from Swedish firm VNV Global, the publicly floated fund that has also backed Babylon Health, New York-based hedge fund Lugard Road Capital/Luxor and strategic investors Delivery Hero and its VC arm, DX Ventures.

Existing investors include Accel, Octopus Ventures, Rubio Ventures and Jason Stockwood and Lord Waheed Alli.

Corporate Partner Angus Miln said: "It is super rewarding to be supporting an ambitious all-female founder team that is building a platform dedicated to reducing waste and tackling climate change."

Co-founder Tessa Clarke said: "The team at Taylor Wessing has supported us from Seed through our Series B, and at every step of the way have provided us with superb legal and commercial advice.  We are thrilled to have their support on our exciting journey and look forward to continuing to work together."

OLIO plans to use this funding to scale its team from 40 to over 175 staff members and accelerate international expansion plans, primarily in Latin America, Northern Europe and Asia.

It will also grow the Food Waste Heroes Programme which encourages restaurants and retailers to reduce their waste, with the likes of supermarket chain Tesco recently signing on 2,700 UK stores.

The team advising OLIO was led by Corporate Partner Angus Miln and supported by Associate Becca Gaunt.