Published Date: October 26, 2020 ,Last modified on June 29th, 2021
DamoGO
food appfood wastefoodtechsurplusfoodsustainabletechnology
DamoGO is a social impact service to reduce food waste in all levels of the industry.
Company Intro Video
Highlights
Food-tech startup that beta tested in South Korea in 2019 and launched in Indonesia in August, 2020. 100% focus is on the much bigger and less competitive Indonesian market.
- 600% revenue growth since August launch – $5,000 in August to $30,000+ in October
- 5,375 new users acquired against $800 marketing dollars since July 1st, 2020 – $0.13/user acquisition cost
- 8,000+ total restaurant outlet partners
- 150+ farm partners
- Winner, RetailTech Pitch Off, Elevating Founders – ConnecTech Asia, October 2020
- Selected into top 15 for Angel Syndicate She1K’s C-Shark Tank Investment pitch – Top 3 get automatically funded – October 2020 (Final pitch and decision in late October)
- Selected by KOCCA (korean govt entity) and Kejora Ventures (Indonesian VC) for 1- week accelerator, October 2020 – Demo day investment opportunity in November
- Selected for Global Startup Ecosystem (GSE) Digital Accelerator, September 2020
- Selected for Impact Collective Accelerator with WFUNA & UN, September 2020 – Demo Day for investment opportunity in December
- Selected for Microsoft for Sustainability Startups, August 2020
- 1 of 10 startups selected by Seoul Invest (Seoul City Gov’t) to represent Korea at Techcrunch Disrupt, September 2020
- 1 of 20 startups selected by Seoul Invest (Seoul City Gov’t) to represent Korea at ConnecTech Asia 2020, September 2020
- Winner, 1st place, Podium Stars Ultimate Pitch Event, Seoul, Korea November 2019
- Winner, 1st place, Startcon 2020 – will be representing Korea in Australia’s largest startup pitch event – November 2019
- Winner, 1st prize, WeGO Secretaries Award, United Nations / Citypreneurs Startup Competition – October 2019
- Winner, 1st place, Pitch for a Better Korea, Tech Rise Seoul 2019 – September 2019
- Runner up (4th out of 3,100 startups), World Bank/UPenn Startup Ideas4action – July 2019
- Winner, Most Potential Award, Seoul Startup Business Fair – June 2019
- Finalist, Hite/Jinro Demo Day – June 2019
- Finalist, Global Entrepreneurs Foundation – June 2019
- Co-founder Farras selected as 1 of 20 Ashoka Changemakers in Asia Region for DamoGO – June 2019
- Accepted into Seoul Global Startup Center Incubator – May 2019
- Finalist, Indonesia Regional Investment Forum. Selected as 1 of 5 startups by city of Jakarta to collaborate on Jakarta Smart City – March 2019
- Finalist at International Finance Center/DCamp Demo Day – March 2019
- Won Outstanding Performance at Markplus Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia – December 2018
- Accepted into Seoul Global Center/Invest Seoul Incubator – July 2018
Company Overview
DamoGO is a social impact food startup that offers the world’s 1st all-in-one mobile app where any business (B2B and B2C) that sells food can gain extra revenue by giving their unsold food a 2nd life. We currently have 3 working business models: 1) Restaurants and other food retailers upload the day’s perfectly good, unsold food for any customer to purchase instead of letting it go to waste 2) We work with farms to sell their “ugly” fruits and vegetables to households 3) We distribute “ugly” fruits and vegetables to other food businesses. Users save on average 50% off the regular price and our B2B partners save 20-40%. Stores and farms gain extra income from food that would have gone to waste, gain extra exposure and foot traffic from new customers, and strengthen their brand image by being associated with a social impact business. In addition, everyone is doing their part to reduce food waste and greenhouse gases, and to help protect the planet.
Problem Overview
Restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, and other food retailers consistently over produce food and are stuck with what to do with this untouched food at the end of the day. Most of the time, it gets thrown away in the garbage – it’s unrealized revenue, an increase in food waste disposal costs, and harmful for the environment. At farms, 30-40% of every agricultural harvest either goes unharvested or unsold because there was too much of it or because they look weird or ugly and it doesn’t meet the high standards of grocery stores. This is a HUGE problem of waste, a broken food supply chain, and wasted money.
Solution Overview
We created an all-in-one mobile app to solve the problem of unsold food for any food business. We help farms sell their weird/ugly harvest directly to our restaurants partners. We help our restaurants partners sell the day’s surplus food to our app users. Our app users can also purchase the ugly produce directly from our farm partners. Everything in this chain is heavily discounted and it’s a HUGE win-win for everyone. Farms and restaurants get more revenue, get more clients/customers, get more exposure, save money and time, and strengthen their brand image by actively reducing waste. For our app users, they get a large discount on delicious food, discover more restaurants, and feel good about doing their part to reduce waste
Go-to-Market Strategy and Business Model
We have a very strong network in both private and public sectors in Indonesia. This has led to over 8,000 partner stores across 80+ brands, 150 farmers, and 5300+ new users in less than 3 months. We also are part of several government startup portfolios that gives us access to B2G projects, and we’ve recently become an official app of Yogyakarta City, where our Indonesian office is based. We have major relevant influencers as ambassadors that we are starting to use to acquire even more user.
We currently have 3 interconnected business models:
1) Restaurants and other food retailers upload the day’s perfectly good, unsold food for any customer to purchase instead of letting it go to waste
2) We work with farms to sell their “ugly” fruits and vegetables to households
3) We distribute “ugly” fruits and vegetables to other food businesses. Users save on average 50% off the regular price and our B2B partners save 20-40%.
Competitive Landscape
Founders' Bio
Lin Hwang
CEO
Food-tech entrepreneur dedicated to making positive impact thru reducing food waste. 14+ years of experience as an entrepreneur at all levels of the food industry in the U.S. and Asia - food manufacturing/processing, food import/export, food distribution, and also exclusively imported the American restaurant franchise The Halal Guys to South Korea. Korean-American born in the United States and currently living in Seoul, South Korea.
Muhammad Farras
COO
Farras, an Indonesian national, has been in the South Korean and Indonesian startup scene since 2017 and quickly made a name for himself in Korea and internationally while working on DamoGO. Farras has won numerous awards and competitions for startups and for being an entrepreneurial changemaker in Seoul, Busan, Abu Dhabi, and Thailand. It culminated in being selected as a 2019 Ashoka Asia Changemaker, which is the most prestigious social entrepreneur community in the world. Farras was also invited to be part of The Obama Foundation Leaders 2019 - Asia Pacific. Farras lived in Seoul, South Korea for 7 years before moving back to his native Indonesia to manage DamoGO's operations there.
- About DamoGO
- Website : damogoapp.com
- Location : South Korea
- Founded year : 2018
- Company size : 18 people
- Total funding amount: $130,000
- Markets: foodtechretailtech