Food redistribution platform, Yume Food Australia, has gone into liquidation after a decade of work reducing food waste – in partnership with companies including Sodexo, Unilever, Kellogg’s, Suez, and SecondBite.
Since it was founded in 2015, Yume has returned $30 million to Australian businesses and manufacturers and redistributed 11.5 million kilograms of quality food, avoiding 44 million kilograms of CO2 emissions and saving 2.5 billion litres of embedded water by reducing food waste.
Source: Yume
The company operated as a digital trading platform, enabling major food manufacturers to sell surplus products, and generating additional revenue whilst reducing food disposal, and streamlining the process for donating unsold food to relief organisations. Yume collaborated with the Victorian government, Unilever, Mars Food, and General Mills in 2021 to update its platform, developing an Australian-first technology to tackle commercial food waste.
The federal government awarded Yume $366,000 in 2023 to support expansion of the platform, and the company raised $2 million in a seed funding round in January 2024, bringing its total capital raise to $7 million at the time.
Rebecca Gill, Robert Ditrich and Craig Crosbie of Teneo Financial Advisory Australia were appointed as liquidators on 18 November, and are undertaking an immediate sale process for Yume’s business and assets.
“Yume has developed an impressive technology platform which provides a national market for food manufacturers to sell products that otherwise may have been disposed of,” said Gill.
“Over the past decade, Yume has established a national network of buyers and sellers, creating a secondary food market that’s become an established and valuable part of many manufacturers’ supply chains.
“Having successfully completed significant platform investments, there would be no near- term capital expenditure needed, but unfortunately this investment in the platform has put unexpected strain on Yume’s operating capital. This is an attractive opportunity for a prospective buyer to leverage the 10 years of investment into this platform, as well as the relationships and network Yume has built,” she said.
The liquidators stated they are inviting expressions of interest from a broad range of strategic buyers in food, logistics, ESG, retail, and technology, and will be exploring all strategic opportunities to complete a transaction in the near term.
The company stated on LinkedIn that it was with heavy hearts the board had made the difficult decision to wind up operations.
“Startups are hard. Changing systems is harder. And while we have reached the end of our runway as an independent company, we are incredibly proud of the flight path we charted,” stated the company.
“We set out to prove that surplus food wasn't "waste", it was a commercial asset and a climate solution waiting to be unlocked. To our team, our courageous buyers, and our pioneering suppliers: thank you for believing. You made a difference. The fight against food waste isn't over, and neither are we.”
Yume used its platform to spread awareness and share strategies for tackling sustainability challenges and reducing food waste, including with an appearance from founder and CEO, Katy Barfield, on the Food & Drink Business podcast last September.
