techSPARK - Startup for 10: Zedible
A lovely article by our friends at techSPARK, on our recent start up journey by Shona Wright. Published 14th March 2023.
Meet the new Bristol-based Climate Tech startup set to take the world by storm, Zedible. The company has been launched by the founders of Friska last month and are currently a two-man band.
Zedible works in Climate Tech for Hospitality & Food Manufacturing. However, whilst this is the team’s current core focus, they are talking to other organisations who buy lots of food, including the NHS, universities and schools.
We caught up with co-founder Griff Holland to learn more about Zedible’s mission:
1 – In your own words – what do you do?
90% of the hospitality and food manufacturing sectors’ carbon footprint is driven by the ingredients it buys, uses and serves. For these huge sectors, the carbon is quite literally on the plate, in the pie, or in the coffee cup!
Zedible allows hospitality operators and food manufacturers to decarbonise by making Co2 a KPI at an ingredient level (Scope 3) helping them navigate towards a low carbon future.
2 – What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing?
In short, we truly believe that Zedible will be the “map and compass” to help hospitality and food brands navigate towards a low carbon future. We are definitely excited about that!
The context to this was that we could see that hospitality and food manufacturing organisations were doing a lot of things in the hope of reducing their carbon, however, they had no way of understanding what was really driving carbon in the first place, nor were they able to understand what impact any changes were having within a carbon context. They were basically shooting in the dark with no idea if they were hitting the target or not!
We knew the industry needed a Zedible so we built it. A platform that for the first time gives visibility to what’s driving Co2 within a business and then gives clients a map and compass to navigate towards a low carbon future.
3 – What are you most proud of so far?
I know it sounds trite, but we genuinely feel that our platform enables our clients to move the dial when it comes to meaningful carbon reduction.
We still actually own a small cafe called Double Puc and through the insight of Zedible, we were able to reduce the second biggest driver of Co2 within the business by 23% in a cost neutral way which our customers didn’t even notice. We know we can drive that sort of change in other companies and at scale. We really do believe that Zedible has the power to be a true game changer within Climate Tech.
4 – What have you found most difficult about being a startup?
Having already started a business in our early 20’s we know all too well the hard work, resilience, and “finding a way through” mindset that is needed. The fact that there isn’t a playbook for the exact business we are building is a massive part of the fun – we are working super hard whilst having a blast!
Having also been through an administrative process with Friska (our first business), we can definitely say that the challenges of starting up are much more energising than the realities of winding down a business. Having said that though, we wouldn’t be here now, had we not been through that then, it’s all making sense in the rearview window and we’re now definitely motoring on ahead!
5 – What would you do differently if you started now?
We have literally just started Zedible so perhaps we’ll come back to you in 12 months with all the “learnings” we will inevitably be making in the next year.
6 – Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?
In the next 12 months, we will have secured a number of tentpole clients and be helping them on their decarbonisation journey. We will have strengthened our network of friends within the broader business community (think banking, accounting and sustainability focused networks) and be helping them and their clients as well. We very much see Zedible as having an amazing “fly wheel” potential often referred to by big Jeff.
7 – What tools/people/services/organisations from the cluster have helped you most?
Because we’ve been part of the business community for a number of years now (and I hope built up a solid reputation in terms of our own character and values), we have been able to reconnect with a number of folks at the big accounting companies, regional banking leaders and of course the national operators who we came to know when we were building Friska.
This track record and trust have really helped a great deal and we are currently working on some really exciting partnerships with some of the organisations I’ve alluded to already. Watch this space!
8 – What’s the best thing about the Bristol & Bath tech cluster?
From a tech perspective we are new to the region but what we can already see and feel is the openness, welcoming attitude and general feeling that a rising tide lifts all the boats in the harbour, even a little dingy like us (dingy at the moment obviously!)
9 – Who will you be nominating for a SPARKie next year?
Can we nominate ourselves ;0) Only Kidding.
Limber has always been a great company which provides a great service and solves a real problem within the hospitality space. Chris and his team have shown you can bootstrap an early stage tech business successfully, and comparing it to some of the competition out there like Stint which although being much better capitalised, just didn’t cut it from a product output perspective. Chris is also a top bloke.
Other neat startups we’ve connected with have been Emm (Fem Tech) – where Jenny is doing some great things and OMG she has enthusiasm and stamina – she’s seemingly at every event around! And finally, Matt at Payaca is building an awesome platform for his customers – his youtube shorts are really catchy too!
