Korean startup DamoGO’s app helps reduce food waste by selling ‘unsold’ food from restaurants, stores & farms

Food waste is the biggest threat to the planet as resources to grow more food are depleting faster as compared to the population. But restaurants, stores, bakeries, coffee shops, the world over are known to throwing away unsold food daily at the end of the day. Even farm products that are not perfect enough are thrown away as waste. Korean startup DamoGO wants to change this trend of food wastage through its first of its kind mobile app where any business (B2B and B2C) that sells food can gain extra revenue by giving their unsold food a second life.

Download app & find best ‘unsold’ food deals nearby

DamoGO is a social impact food startup which connects consumers directly with perfectly good, unsold food from restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, and farms’ pick-up points at half price. The way DamoGO app works is simple by downloading the app and receiving notifications about available discounted food in stores nearby. The purchase can be made on the app, and then food picked up from the store later. It is a win-win situation for both businesses, farms as they get extra revenue and consumers as they get discounted healthy food and also save the planet at the same time.

DamoGo has 3 working business models:

1) Restaurants and other food retailers that upload the day’s perfectly good, unsold food for any customer to purchase instead of letting it go to waste
2) It works with farms that sell their “ugly” fruits and vegetables to households
3) Distribution of the “ugly” fruits and vegetables to other food businesses.

Apa sih DamoGO itu? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Z2r0RzRdso

— DamoGO (@damogo_id) April 2, 2020

Users save on average 50% off the regular price and Damogo’s 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 the chain of DamoGO, everyone is doing their part to reduce food waste and greenhouse gases. DamoGO keeps 20% of every purchase on the app (B2C) and sells imperfect produce at 30-40% gross margin on the app to stores and users (B2C + B2B).

Serving Korea, Indonesia & expansion plan to more countries

DamoGO was launched in South Korea in the middle of 2019 and currently also operating in Indonesia, which is world number two in food waste as $10 billion worth of food is thrown away every year and 30-40% of every agriculture harvest is wasted. The startup launched its app in Indonesia in May 2020 and has got 80 food brands and more than 8000 users now, half of which is from Indonesia. In the first three months of the launch DamoGO got more than 800 B2C transactions with weekly revenue that increased from $50 to $1000.

The founders of DamoGO Muhammad Farras and Lin Hwang are passionate about social and environment issues. The idea to start the app came to the founders when both of them experienced food waste and benefits of selling ‘unsold’ food when they were studying and working. The startup is successfully running the app in South Korea and Indonesia and wants to expand to other Southeast Asian countries in the future.

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