Founded in 2020 in Indonesia, Surplus is a social technology startup aimed at reducing food loss and waste across the supply chain, particularly from local restaurants and businesses. Through a user-friendly mobile application, Surplus connects shops and restaurants with consumers seeking quality food at reasonable prices. The technology developed by this startup focuses on addressing one of the most pressing issues today: food waste and the imbalance in food access.
The app allows businesses to list surplus stock or cosmetically imperfect products that still meet food safety standards. Consumers can purchase these items at discounts of up to 50%, helping them save on living costs while directly contributing to emission reduction and sustainable consumption. Surplus‘s operational model creates clear social impact—it not only helps stores recover revenue from unsold goods but also contributes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions from food waste.
On the technology front, the Surplus platform is built around a mobile application featuring an intuitive interface, integrated payment system, and delivery options. To ensure scalability, the startup has formed strategic partnerships with ride-hailing companies, food delivery platforms, and major food supply chains. This integration of logistics allows Surplus to solve the “last-mile” problem, ensuring that consumers receive their orders quickly and safely. Rather than chasing complex algorithms or heavy AI models, Surplus‘s technology demonstrates the power of simplicity—tailored to the digital infrastructure and real-life needs of Southeast Asian cities.
Compared to traditional food donation models or waste-alert systems implemented in large supermarkets, Surplus expands its reach to include small businesses and budget restaurants—areas where food waste occurs frequently but is rarely digitized. The model can be seen as a “reverse GrabFood”—instead of ordering meals, users search for food items that need to be “rescued.” While many anti-waste technologies in Europe, such as Too Good To Go, typically target urban areas with robust logistics infrastructure, Surplus adapts its solution to fit local conditions and technology readiness in Indonesia.
At the P4G Vietnam Summit 2025, the company presented its food waste reduction solution via a platform that connects food businesses with consumers. The model stood out for its simplicity, effectiveness, and scalability in densely populated urban areas. By connecting high-quality surplus food with consumers, Surplus not only helps reduce food-related emissions but also promotes sustainable consumption and supports small businesses in optimizing operations.
One of the key lessons from Surplus is that solving systemic problems does not necessarily require complex technology. What truly matters is deeply understanding user behavior, designing solutions that align with market capacity, and forming strategic partnerships to strengthen the value chain. In a food sector where digital transformation still has many gaps, the emergence of platforms like Surplus shows that simple, flexible, and community-driven tech initiatives can create broad impact—if approached with the right strategy.
For other founders in the region, Surplus’s journey serves as a reminder that pursuing social goals does not preclude building a sustainable business model. Choosing a specific problem to solve, creating affordable technological solutions, and continuously collaborating with ecosystem partners are strategies that many early-stage tech startups should consider. Most importantly, the true value of technology lies not only in its accuracy or processing power but in its ability to spark positive behavioral change among end users.
