Every night, thousands of fresh food wholesalers work through the early hours processing a flood of restaurant orders that arrive via text, email, and voicemail—a critical but chaotic process that determines next morning's deliveries to restaurants across the world. Today, Fresho, the market-leading order management platform that helps fresh food wholesalers operate more efficiently and better service their restaurant customers, has announced the successful close of its £9m Series B funding round, bringing total investment to £25m to date.
The oversubscribed round welcomed both new and existing shareholders, led by Geoff Tarrant, Co-Founder and former Executive Chairman of Payapps, the global construction software firm acquired by Autodesk for $400m in 2024. Tarrant, who also served as director of ASX-listed Adbri, will join Fresho's Board of Directors.
Founded in 2015 by James Andronis, drawing on 15 years' experience running one of Australia's leading seafood wholesalers, and Huw Birrell, a technology entrepreneur with international finance expertise, Fresho has revolutionised how fresh food wholesalers and their restaurant customers work together. The platform recently celebrated processing its 30 millionth order since 2016, with 10 million orders in the past year alone.
Fresho's platform has fundamentally transformed how fresh food moves from supplier to restaurant kitchen. The company's technology directly addresses the industry's unique challenges, where produce travels from farm or ocean to restaurant in days, prices fluctuate daily, and high-end restaurant customers demand perfection. By maintaining a closed marketplace model that protects and strengthens existing supplier-restaurant relationships, Fresho has earned the trust of leading wholesalers while digitising their operations.
The impact is particularly visible in daily operations. Where suppliers once dedicated overnight staff to manually process orders arriving through emails, texts, and voicemails, Fresho's AI-powered system now automatically converts incoming orders into structured data, while giving restaurants direct access to live pricing and availability through its app. This transformation has not only eliminated unsociable working hours but has dramatically improved order accuracy and processing speed.
The platform's effectiveness is evident in its adoption by prestigious establishments, including Michelin-starred venues such as Wild Honey within Sofitel St James in London, Cote and Le Bernardin in New York City, and leading restaurants like Bennelong and Cafe Sydney in Australia.
Industry experts support the digitisation trend, with Deloitte advocating for "upgrading legacy systems and creating the foundation needed to develop a full digital stack for an always-on integrated fresh supply chain. These solutions provide the flexibility and scale that improve visibility and process efficiencies that provide exponential benefits."
The new funding will accelerate Fresho's investment in AI and emerging technologies, while driving further growth in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The company will also establish on-ground presence in the US market in 2025, building on successful launches with customers in Texas, New York, and California over the past two years.
Fresho is on a mission to transform fresh food wholesale for the benefit of people—by replacing stress and long hours with systems that support sustainable work/life balance—and the planet, by contributing to understanding and reducing food waste.
