Geoff Tarrant, who co-founded construction industry payments software business Payapps which was sold to Autodesk for $600 million in 2024, has led a $17 million Series B funding round for Fresho an online fresh food wholesale marketplace for restaurants.
Other high-net-worth individual investors who previously invested in Fresho supported the latest funding round closed in November.
Tarrant, who has joined the Fresho board, is now chairman of construction and building operations software company Zuuse. He was among a group of high-net-worth individual investors who provided funding of $3 million to Fresho in mid-2019. Other investors in that round included the Tarascio family of Salta Capital and Aconex co-founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot.
Andrew Sypkes, an early investor in Aconex, was also an early investor in Fresho.
Melbourne-based Fresho raised a Series A capital round of $14 million in 2022 from Capital Zed, SecondQuarter Ventures, Salta Capital and individual investors including Sypkes.
Fresho’s cloud-based software platform enables restaurant staff to order produce directly from any internet-linked device and automate the delivery and charging processes. The company was founded in 2016 by James Andronis of wholesale business Clamms Seafood and Huw Birrell, a former M&A associate director at Ernst & Young.
Fresho’s business model is based on charging wholesalers monthly fees to be on the platform based on volume of trade. Buyers access the platform free of charge.
The new funding is to be used primarily to expand Fresho in the US.
After initially finding it a slow process to convert restaurants from ordering directly from their own rosters of suppliers, Fresho has significantly accelerated its rate of conversion.
Fresho says its revenues have increased 200% since its Series A capital raising.
The company now deals with orders from around 53,000 venues a month and has more than 1,500 suppliers on its platform. The business operates in New Zealand and the UK as well as Australia and currently has a small presence in the US.
Image: Fresho simplifies ordering fresh food for restaurants.