How does OLIO make money?
OLIO generates revenues by charging some businesses for the service we provide via our Food Waste Heroes Programme to enable them to have zero edible food waste stores. The service is free for small businesses who want the basic version of the programme. We will continue to explore other avenues to generate revenues to ensure that we have a sustainable business model.
Why are you asking users to contribute to OLIO/upgrade to "OLIO On The Go"?
For OLIO to continue on our mission to stop food waste around the world, we need to cover our expenses which include the full-time employment of 25 people as well as app development and maintenance costs. To date we've charged large businesses for our
Food Waste Heroes Programme, which enables them to be zero food waste; however this covers only a small fraction of our overall costs. It's therefore
critical that we find other sustainable and scalable revenue streams. If we don't, then OLIO won't be able to continue to exist.
What about users who can't afford it?
As we've thought about developing revenue streams for OLIO, we've tried as hard as we can to ensure that those users who need OLIO most aren't excluded. That's why the core version of the app remains free, and why any contributions are optional at this point in time.