OLIO

Based in the UK, OLIO is a food-sharing app that connects neighbors, volunteers, and businesses willing to share surplus food. The location-based platform allows people to list and post photos of surplus food items to be shared with others. As of October 2024, the company had over 8 million users and saved 195 million portions of food from going to waste since its inception in 2015. The company has set a target of 1 billion OLIOers by 2030. OLIO implements a “freemium” model where users pay a monthly fee of GBP 1.99 for extra features in its app, while its core service of neighbor-to-neighbor food sharing remains free. 

During the global Covid-19 pandemic, OLIO saw a surge in demand which led to the company introducing new business lines. One such initiative, OLIO’s MADE, is a marketplace for handmade products—a service for people looking to buy products available near them amidst lockdowns. During 2020, the company reported that it grew nearly 5x, given the increasing demand for its services. OLIO claims that 50% of its listings receive a request within 21 minutes of posting. 

Key customers and partnerships

The company charges larger businesses for the services they provide via their Food Waste Heroes Program, which picks up and delivers surplus food to communities in need. As of September 2021, the company had tied up with around 3,000 businesses via this program.

Tesco is one of the prominent businesses involved in OLIO’s Food Waste Hero Programme and has launched the app across 2,700 of its stores across the UK, saving over five million meals, as of October 2024. By this time, the program also built a network of more than 30,000 volunteer participants collecting and redistributing surplus food to businesses. The company’s food redistribution partners include Pandamart, One Stop, Anglian Learning, Whole Foods Market, and facilities management company ISS to implement Olio’s redistribution service across 35 NHS hospitals in the UK in March 2024.

In June 2024, Olio entered into a three-way partnership with FareShare and Asda to donate surplus food collected from 209 Asda stores to local charities. In July 2024, the company partnered with Gander to help consumers reduce costs and food waste through the yellow stick deals in the new “Deals” section developed on the app.