Based in Toronto, flash food, a mobile app that gives customers access to discounted food that is nearing its expiration date, has raised $12,3 million in funding from the Serie A led by S2G Ventures. The app allows users to search for available deals at nearby partner stores. Customers can also purchase items directly in the app and then pick up their order in the area flash food from your nearest store.
The app was founded based on the personal experience of the CEO of flash food, Josh Domingues, in 2016. His sister, who was a chef, called him one night distraught and told him he had to throw away $4.000 worth of food. Domingues thought it was a joke, but he was surprised to learn that the food came from a catered event and that throwing away uneaten food was the norm in food industries. After months of research, Domingues thought of creating an app that would allow him to buy food that was approaching its expiration date at a discounted price, after which he was born flash food.
Founded in March 2016, flash food has numerous supermarket partners in Canada and the United States, including Giant, Loblaw, Giant Eagle, Tops, Family Fare, Stop & Shop, Tops, and Price Rite Marketplace among others. flash food says it has saved shoppers more than $100 million on their grocery bills, with regular shoppers saving more than $540 a year on average through the app. The company also says it has diverted more than 15,5 million kilograms of food from landfills.
Regarding the new financing, the CEO of flash foodJosh Domingues says the investment will be used to support the company's continued expansion in the United States and enable it to work toward a more sustainable food system.
“The funds will be used to expand our presence in the US to offer more shoppers discounted grocery items that would otherwise end up in landfills,” Domingues said. “In addition to expanding the footprint of flash food through new supermarkets and other strategic partnerships, we are also investing in our technology to make flash food be accessible to a broader base of consumers.
Flashfood's Series A investment included participation from ArcTern Ventures, General Catalyst, Food Retail Ventures, Rob Gierkink and Alex Moorhead. S2G Ventures managing director and OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton will also join Flashfood's board of directors.
In terms of the future, Domingues says that flash food will continue to expand its existing partnerships into more locations and that the company will announce new ones in the coming months.
“We are currently focused on scaling in the US, expanding our existing partnerships to more locations, and adding new partners so that flash food is available from coast to coast,” he said. “As we do that, we are exploring opportunities to increase our impact across the supply chain and will have some exciting news on that in the coming months. We know that retail food waste is a global problem and the potential of the category is as staggering as the size of the problem. Solutions are urgently needed and ultimately we are building a company to solve the problem of food waste in retail on a global scale.”
The app is currently available in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland. As for the United States, the app is available in Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The application can be downloaded through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
