I make a conscious effort to not waste food because 1) I see it as a waste of money and 2) there are a lot of people who go without food. There’s a lot of waste that goes on in restaurants and Too Good to Go tries to solve this by allowing you to get extra food from local stores and restaurants that would otherwise get wasted.
It’s currently available in a few U.S. cities (NYC, Boston, Jersey City, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia), and they are looking to expand to San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Austin. It’s actually available in a lot of international markets given that they’re headquartered in Denmark.
There are a lot of stats saying how many pounds of food they’ve saved and people they’ve reached. I assume that the company makes revenue by taking a cut from the businesses they partner with.
The company started in 2016 with three co-founders. Note that one is no longer involved. One has experience in the food industry working at Nestle and another food non profit. It raised $31 million in January with Blisce leading the round (investments in Harry’s, Headspace, Bird).
I love the idea since it’s a triple win for businesses, consumers, and the environment. I could see some restaurants not wanting to be on the app in fear that it dilutes their “brand,” but it can also reach people who wouldn’t typically dine there. Like other food delivery apps, there’s this localized approach with needing to hire sales people in the city they operate in. There might be some difficulty in managing that, but other companies do it ok. I do think the business model can be easily replicated and restaurants will select the app that takes the smallest cut of revenue. I hope to see them add Dallas to the list soon.