Food Waste Is Worse Than You Think - Interview with Olio CEO & Co-Founder Tessa Clarke

Why It Matters

Olio proves that community‑based technology can dramatically cut household food waste, delivering tangible climate and resource savings while opening new, scalable business opportunities in the sustainability sector.

Key Takeaways

• Olio has mobilized 9 million users to share surplus food.
• Household waste accounts for half of global food waste.
• WhatsApp pilot proved neighbor food sharing demand quickly.
• 100,000 volunteers collect unsold food from businesses for redistribution.
• Scaling required shifting focus from app idea to solving supply problem.

Summary

The EU Startups podcast featured Tessa Clarke, CEO and co‑founder of Olio, a food‑tech platform that connects neighbours to give away surplus food and household items. Launched in 2015, Olio now boasts over nine million users, has redistributed 135 million meals and 15 million items, cutting roughly 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent and saving billions of litres of water.

Clarke highlighted that half of global food waste originates in homes, a problem she first encountered when moving out of a Swiss flat and refusing to discard edible leftovers. A two‑week WhatsApp experiment with twelve neighbours proved the concept, with the first item claimed within 23 minutes, confirming latent demand for a dedicated sharing app. The company later expanded its model by training 100,000 volunteers to collect unsold food from supermarkets, offices and event venues, creating a scalable supply pipeline and a modest revenue stream.

The interview underscored how Clarke’s farm upbringing shaped her entrepreneurial mindset—constant problem‑solving, resourcefulness and an all‑in work ethic. She emphasized that successful founders fall in love with the problem, not the idea, and that Olio’s evolution—from a simple neighbour‑group to a hybrid community‑brand and technology platform—illustrates this principle.

For investors and policymakers, Olio demonstrates a viable, community‑driven approach to reducing household food waste, offering measurable environmental benefits and a replicable model for other regions. As global food demand rises, platforms that unlock unused food at the consumer level could become essential components of sustainable food systems.

Original Description

In this interview, we sit down with Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio, a community-powered platform built to redistribute surplus food and household items at scale.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Yorkshire, Tessa developed an early understanding of the effort behind food production and a deep aversion to waste. That mindset later collided with a very common problem: moving house with a fridge full of perfectly good food. Knocking on neighbours’ doors with a newborn and toddler in tow, she realised there had to be a better way to share surplus – and Olio was born.

Since launching in 2015, Olio has grown from a 12-person WhatsApp experiment into a global platform with over 9 million users, 135 million meals redistributed, 15 million household items rehomed, and around 300,000 tonnes of CO₂e prevented. To date, Olio has raised around €45 million in funding.

Alongside neighbour-to-neighbour sharing, Olio now works with major partners including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Pret and Compass Group to safely redistribute surplus food at scale.

In the conversation, Tessa reflects on moving from senior corporate roles at Dyson and Wonga to building a purpose-led startup, the power of volunteer-driven models, and why household food waste – which accounts for around half of global waste – remains one of the hardest challenges to solve.

Key Points

- How growing up on a dairy farm shaped Tessa Clarke’s views on food, work and waste

- The moment that sparked Olio – and how a few sweet potatoes led to a global platform

- Lessons from scaling a purpose-led startup from a WhatsApp group to millions of users

- Why household food waste is harder to tackle than supply-chain waste

- The role of community, volunteers and trust in making circular models work at scale

- Where Olio’s peer-to-peer model fits within the wider European FoodTech ecosystem

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:23 - Sponsor

2:36 - Interview