Food waste tech startup Yume raises $2m in round led by Investible

The news: Food waste redistribution platform Yume has raised $2 million in seed funding as it prepares for international expansion.

The numbers: The funding round was led by Investible and took Yume's total funding to $7 million, with help from other backers including Launch Vic, Goodrich Group, Veolia and angel investor Pitzy Folk. Since its founding in 2016, Yume has redistributed nearly 8 million kilograms of surplus food from manufacturers to other businesses and charities and returned more than $22 million to businesses using the platform to commercialise surplus food.

The context: Around one third of global food supply is wasted, costing the global economy around USD940 billion ($1.4 trillion) each year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation. In Australia, around 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted across the supply chain annually at an economic cost of around $36.6 billion. Yume's platform digitises and automates food manufacturers' sales and donation processes for handling excess food inventory to cut food waste and boost revenue.