1.3 billion tonnes of food, amounting to 1/3 of food produced, is wasted annually. It is an obvious social problem in the world where still 800 million people go to bed hungry. Waste of food also means waste of money, to be precise an astonishing $1 trillion. Therefore, food waste can also be a great business opportunity.
FoodPlus, a Slovenian startup, has been trying to provide a solution to the problem. They found out that surplus stock is a burning problem. First, they helped companies to close transactions on the stock via the phone. During the process they interviewed more than 50 suppliers and buyers to understand their risks and challenges to be able to provide a successful solution.
What they did is they created a B2B online platform where sellers and buyers can list the surplus stock products which are soon to expire. The platform provides the interested buyer with the information of the origin, the price and the expiry date. Thanks to the platform sellers can sell products that otherwise would have been wasted and buyers can buy discounted products. Both parties make or save money and act against food being wasted.
Since 11th January, when the platfrom launched, 150 users have registered having surplus stock suprassing the vaule of 1.5 million euro showing that definitely there is a business opportunity in food waste. In the next few months the team will be focusing on further user acquisition. They are aiming at getting 1000 users in 3 months. First, expanding within the Balkans, and in the autumn planning to reach Eastern Europe, and then Northern and Western Europe by the end of this year.
Their plans are very ambitious , therefore they are looking for investment. The ABC accelerator (about which you can read here and a DemoDay) invested 15.000 euro for 8% which was enough to do research, prepare the product and launch it. At the moment, they are looking for an angel investor or a VC active in the food sector to help scale their operations by not only providing capital, but also by helping them establish links with the leading companies in the food sector.
