Taking the Long View; Local food distribution going global

From Waiheke Island to the World. Exporting bits not bites, Ooooby is on a mission to make local food convenient, affordable and fair everywhere. And with money raised on the crowdfunding platform, PledgeMe, it can now set a path to do just that.

Ooooby – stands for “Out of our own backyards” – connects growers with customers, in the process reducing transport, handling, packaging, warehousing, and merchandising costs. The result is fairly priced, fresh food (much of it organic) for customers and the opportunity for small producers (even home gardeners) to enter the market.

Seventy thousand boxes of locally produced food delivered to 5,000 households in five years is good proof the system works. From a launch in the Auckland area, Ooooby has added Waikato and Matakana hubs and already entered the market in Sydney and Fresno, California.

And with $285,000 raised in a PledgeMe equity campaign, Ooooby can really ramp up its efforts to help rebuild local food economies.

It’s this sort of vision and approach that sets Ooooby and other social enterprises apart. The Ākina (formerly Hikurangi) Foundation, a Wellington-based non-profit that supports fledgling social enterprises defines them as “purpose-driven organisations that trade to deliver social and environmental impact.”

Alex Hannant, Ākina’s CEO, elaborated on social enterprises in a 2013 TEDx TeAro talk, noting that they address genuine need, focus on value over profit, and care at least as much about stakeholders (customers, community, the broader environment) as they do about shareholders.

PledgeMe, itself a social enterprise, and Ooooby both received support from the Ākina Foundation in their early days. So it was no surprise that when Ooooby needed investment funds it turned to PledgeMe.

“Crowdfunding was chosen as our capital raising method because it perfectly aligns with the philosophy of food for the people, by the people,” said Ooooby co-founder Peter Russell.

Funds will be used to perfect, expand and market their software and systems to allow local food hubs anywhere to launch and grow at speed without the typical trial and error misadventures. All you need are 150 households wanting local food delivered weekly to their door to make the service viable.

Ooooby will charge a small fee for use of the software system and a bit more if the local organisation wants some hands-on help in the early stages.

Consistent with Ooooby’s goal to reduce environmental impact through local food production and paying farmers a generous 50 per cent of the retail value of food sold to customers is their uncommon investment approach.

The founders have transferred 90 per cent of their shares to the Ooooby Foundation, with any dividends earned used to support projects such as community gardens, food growing education, and buying land for local food production.

Investors – there were 156 of them in the recent fundraising round – will not receive cash dividends. Instead, their earnings can be converted to Ooooby store vouchers if they have a hub nearby or contributed to local food production initiatives.

It’s heartening to see investors getting behind this effort and in it for the long term, not just a cash return. This may be a part of crowdfunding’s appeal, too. As the PledgeMe website says: We help Kiwis fund the things they care about.

PledgeMe is one of half a dozen equity crowdfunding platforms operating in New Zealand, an investment approach made possible with changes to the Financial Investment Authority Act in 2014. It is the only one that also offers rewards-based project crowdfunding and operates as a social enterprise. They bill themselves as “a band of change makers, do gooders, and get shit done-ers.”

Social enterprise and crowdfunding initiatives like Ooooby are part of an unfolding story that build on the likes of sustainable business, triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) accounting, the birth of benefit corporations, and companies making natural capital declarations. These are all developments that give hope for the sustainable and desirable future we so need.

Alex Hannant put it nicely when he said, “I hope it isn’t called social enterprise in 20 years. I hope it’s just called enterprise.”

Gord Stewart is an environmental sustainability consultant. He does project work for government, industry, and non-profit organisations.

More Info …
Why social enterprise is a good idea and how we can get more of it – Alex Hannant’s TEDx Te Aro talk, see YouTube
Akina Foundation – www.akina.org.nz
Ooooby – www.oooby.org.nz
PledgeMe – www.pledgme.co.nz

Disclosure statement: Gordon Stewart has no connection with Oooby. He is a member of Akina's Compass Network, consultants who are prepared to volunteer time to help their start-up clients.

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