Surplus Indonesia will allocate seed funding from SPIL Ventures for further development of the B2B model and expansion of the app user market.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — A food waste prevention startup, Surplus Indonesia, obtained an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines (SPIL) Ventures.
This funding will be allocated for further development of Surplus’ B2B model in building an end-to-end ecosystem to prevent food waste. In addition, Co-founder and CEO of Surplus Indonesia Muhammad Agung Saputra said that the company will use the fresh fund to expand the market for Surplus application service users.
“We also hope that the Penta helix collaboration which involves several parties, spanning academics, business people, community, government, and media, can occur to become the basis for preventing the emergence of food waste in Indonesia,” said Agung, cited by DailySocial.
To date, the company has collaborated with several shopping centers, namely Sarinah Mall, and hotels spanning the Marriott International Group, Swiss Belhotel International, Ascott Group, and Artotel Group. Besides, Surplus also cooperates with middle-high food and beverage brands, vegetable and fruit suppliers, as well as the home industry and MSMEs.
Innovation within the Surplus application has attracted the attention of SPIL Ventures. VP Investment at SPIL Ventures Sumarny Manurung said, “The reason SPIL Ventures provides funding to Surplus Indonesia is that we see application development innovations that are not only in the form of a marketplace but also directly provide solutions to environmental impacts, especially related to food waste.”
The seed funding from SPIL Ventures is certainly a breath of fresh air for Surplus. Previously, this startup conducted crowdfunding to obtain additional capital. However, it had difficulty getting donors making the desired target not achieved. This was due to the lack of awareness of Surplus in foreign countries.
Surplus active users reach 100 thousand
The Surplus application launched in March 2020 provides services to purchase unsold food from stores before closing time with a minimum discount of 50%. This startup already has a network of partners spread across several cities, spanning Jabodetabek, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Malang, and Bali areas with around 100 thousand active users.
This company is one of the Greentech startups with B-corp certification carrying out a mission to prevent food waste. Surplus Indonesia has also received support from the government, spanning the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises, the PPKUKM Department of DKI Jakarta, and the Yogyakarta Regional Government.
According to Agung, this platform was developed as an answer to maximize sales of overstock products in the food and beverage business, resulting in zero food waste.
As of December 2022, Surplus Indonesia has recorded 30 thousand tons of food being saved. Ordering food on this application also has the impact of preventing a loss of $80 thousand and preventing the potential emission of up to 350 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq).
