CEO and co-founder Iseult Ward’s FoodCloud makes the essential connection between companies in Ireland who have surplus food and the charities that have the power to deliver it to those who need it. The idea is simple: retailers, restaurants and cafes simply download the app for a small fee and from there FoodCloud is able to notify the relevant charities of the extra food that hasnt sold.
And with over 30 per cent of food globally being wasted while 795m people are struggling with food poverty, Ward is hoping to make it through the finals of Richard Bransons 1m VOOM competition.
Category: Grow
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Founding year: 2013
(1) What was your inspiration for launching the business
The UN have said that if we could reduce the amount of food wasted globally by just 25 per cent we would have enough food to feed all of those people who are malnourished. Within communities, businesses are throwing away perfectly good food and charities are struggling to raise funding to feed those in need. We wanted to find a local, sustainable and scalable solution to this global problem.
(2) Who are your target customers
Food businesses and charities.
(3) What prompted you to take part in VOOM this year
FoodCloud has tested and scaled our solution with retailers and charities across the UK and Ireland we now have 450 stores and over 1,000 charities using the platform to donate food and over 3m meals equivalent have been redistributed through the platform since we launched in October 2013. We are now in a position to scale our platform internationally and the VOOM competition is the perfect opportunity for FoodCloud to “VOOM”.
Coffee doesn’t just energise the sleep deprived – waste grounds are fuelling buildings
(4) How did you find the Pitchathon, and what did you do to prepare
The Pitchathon was an amazing and intense experience. I practiced the pitch with the team and our key stakeholders daily until I was fully prepared for the pitch and ensured that I was in a strong position to answer any questions the judges may ask. I even practiced the pitch with a taxi driver at 1am when my flight was delayed the night before the Pitchathon!
(5) Prior to that, what was your experience of pitching
We went through two startup accelerator programmes in Ireland when FoodCloud was first founded this gave us great initial experience in pitching FoodCloud and our solution. Since FoodCloud has expanded, we have had great opportunities to pitch for national and international competitions including Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, and the opportunity to speak at international conferences including the European Youth Event in Strasbourg and Seeds and Chips conference in Milan.
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(6) What did you learn from the event
Always be prepared for everything and anything in the Q&A. The questions I was asked were more general than expected and this gave me the opportunity to get across any points that were missing from my presentation.
(7) Why do you think you got through to the semi-finals
We showed our strengths in all of the areas that the judges were looking for we have a strong business model, a great team and the potential to have a massive positive impact on the world.
My little girl’s school assembly inspired me to get my business started
(8) What went through your head when you were told you had made it to the grand final
I couldnt wait to share the news with the team we have all worked very hard and this is an amazing achievement. I was very excited to share it with them.
(9) You’re going to pitch to Richard Branson what will you do to ensure you impress him and the other judges to win
We are trying to solve social and environmental problems while being a successful business and we are at the forefront of social enterprises that are trying to change the world. Its important for influential business leaders, like Sir Richard Branson, to support this movement and show that social enterprise can work side by side with big businesses in leading the change we need to see in the world.
(10) Should you be victorious, what’s the big ambition for the company over the next year and then five years
In the short term we have a big project in the UK with Tesco and we are going to scale to 2,000 stores next year. In tandem, we want to raise investment to support internationalising our operations outside of the UK and Ireland. Within two years we want to increase our donor base by 20 times. To do this we need to build our team and continue to invest in our technology. This scale will enable us to donate almost 60m meals a year to charities across the world.
From 3,000 entrants,?these are the six SMEs chosen to pitch to Richard Branson at the 1m VOOM 2016 finale.
