Bagging Profits From F&B Surplus

Every day, Malaysians discard roughly 13,800 tonnes of food. A significant portion of this isn't consumer waste - it is perfectly edible surplus that merchants produce to manage the unpredictability of daily walk-in traffic. Value Food was built to solve this inefficiency. The app allows merchants to package their unsold inventory into "Value Bags," selling them at a fraction of the original price. This model allows businesses to recover sunk capital on food destined for the landfill, while providing customers with heavily subsidised meals. Despite being entirely self-funded, the startup has already achieved profitability and successfully onboarded over 500 merchant outlets, including global hospitality players like Hilton and Marriott. The platform drives revenue through three distinct streams: merchant subscriptions, per-bag transaction fees, and a unique monetization angle tied to corporate ESG reporting. By proving that sustainability can directly impact a merchant's bottom line, the platform has managed to scale rapidly across the local F&B ecosystem. Founders Hariharan Nagendran and Vishnu Pathmanaban talk to us about building a marketplace out of inventory everyone else was throwing away. We discuss the B2B sales cycle required to convince luxury hotel chains to sell their buffet surplus, exactly why they refuse to position the app as a discount platform, and their strategic rationale for seeking external capital now that the bootstrapped model has been proven. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.