British wholesale food platform Platter raises €411k to reduce inefficiency & food waste

In an exclusive reveal to EU-Startups, London-based Platter, a UK-based all-in-one wholesale food platform connecting buyers and sellers, has just raised a €411k pre-Seed round in order to increase its talent acquisition in sales and marketing.

This pre-seed saw participation from Startup Wise Guys and a group of angel investors and investors in SaaS, ERP and the food industry.

“Jack has an outstanding knowledge of the market niche that Platter serves its clients. He combines this with a passion for strategically implementing technology in a rapidly evolving market, and an impressive understanding of the startup ecosystem. Platter was an easy investment for me and my network; we remain extremely bullish on its potential,” says investor Toby Webber.

Founded in 2021, Platter is led by UK wholesale food industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Jack Clegg, who saw the opportunity to address food waste via tech after working at the top levels of food purchasing.

Platter is a B2B platform transforming how suppliers and buyers connect in the food industry. Acting as a central hub, it allows suppliers to manage all their buyers and oversee the full product journey — from order through to delivery.

Designed to simplify operations and improve efficiency, Platter claims to save time, increase sales, and cut costs linked to errors, inefficiencies, and waste.

By consolidating all food ordering, sales and purchasing tools within one digital platform, Platter aims to tackle food sourcing inefficiencies for the 3 in 4 businesses that still manage their food orders offline.

According to Platter, the 800,0000 businesses operating across Europe’s food industry lose millions of hours a week carrying out manual orders. Platter users reportedly reduce the processing time of orders received by an average of 30 minutes, and achieve sales uplift of up to 26%.

The platform does this by aggregating all third party partners for the ordering, transportation, financing and sustainability (waste reduction) of food. This enables food buyers and suppliers to manage their connections in one place, reducing human error, saving time, and increasing margins.

As part of its sustainability goals, Platter enables users to connect with food charities in order to donate surplus stocks. Over 10M tonnes of food is wasted in the UK every year, most of it edible. Though 2.8 million tonnes of that surplus are already being redistributed to charity, commerce or agriculture, Platter believes that number can be vastly improved by easing access to surplus donation mechanisms via a dedicated platform.

Platter is reportedly the only platform of its kind that caters to both manufacturers and buyers, and which also integrates finance, food donation and surplus stock tools. The company is looking at a total addressable market of €112 billion with 1.1M+ potential customers across Europe, and Pitchbook estimates that the retail tech sector of FoodTech will grow 20% in 2025.

“Platter has saved us 20 minutes per order and helped us to focus on what really matters whilst creating a better, healthier working environment,” says Ollie Ward, Head of Sales & Marketing at FDL Cheese, a Platter customer.

The post British wholesale food platform Platter raises €411k to reduce inefficiency & food waste appeared first on EU-Startups.