As per study commissioned by the United Nations food agency, about one-third of all food produced worldwide ends up in landfills. Motatos, a Swedish D2C e-commerce business works with the intention to resolve this most pressing issue.
Recently, the company just announced that it has pocketed €24 million (nearly $27.8 million) in a Series C funding round. The investment round was led by Blume Equity alongside support from existing investors. It follows the Series C round it raised earlier this year and takes the total funds raised to €95 million (nearly $110 million).
Motatos eyes to use the funds to accelerate its international expansion, and build on the strong momentum it is experiencing across Europe. Currently, the startup tackling food waste operates in Sweden (where it is called Matsmart), Germany (named Motatos), Finland, and Denmark and wants to penetrate into new regions.
Founded to combat food waste
Motatos was founded in 2014 by Ulf Skagerström, Erik Södergren, and Karl Andersson, who saw how huge quantities of food in perfect condition were thrown away unnecessarily. At the same time, the world started to take about bringing a climate change for real. Not throwing flawless food was not only smart but also highly important for the planet. Understanding this, the co-founders started the e-commerce firm from a basement with a tool they found online for a few hundred bucks.
They started spending days and nights packing boxes and witnessed a surge in orders. Especially, it saw climate heroes and price hunters join its platform and help them start a revolution.
How does Motatos work?
Motatos lets consumers purchase food, grocery, household items and more that will be tossed into waste otherwise. The waste could be due to overproduction, seasonal trends, incorrect packaging, and short shelf life. These factors contribute to a surplus of items that are not sold in time. The e-commerce platform saves these products and sells them at a low cost to customers via its website and delivers them to the customers’ doorsteps.
The Motatos product range includes popular pantry items such as breads and jams, beauty and healthcare products and pet foods. The Motatos has saved over 25,000 tonnes of food, as well as, consumer products from getting wasted. It helps major producers of FMCG get off their surplus inventory, thereby reducing waste and making their businesses sustainable.
Moreover, all the products have both food-smart and normal prices. Notably, the normal price is a comparison price based on what the item costs in a medium-sized grocery store. On the other hand, Motatos ensures to reduce the price by 20 percent to 90 percent cheaper than the normal price of the product. However, the normal price will not include local pricing, sales or promotional prices.
