Meet Singapore's TreeDots, which just raised an $11M Series A. They're solving the trillion-dollar problem of food waste. How? It helps suppliers sell unsold food inventory to individuals and businesses.

Investors include Ayala Corporation, Globe Telecom's Active fund, SEEDS Capital, author Nir Eyal and actress Fiona Xie.

• It is currently active in Singapore and Malaysia, with over 22,000 products.
• Its gross merchandise value has grown over 4x YoY.

😰 Struggle with the surplus

Surplus food has a bad rap. While it looks "imperfect" from the outside, it's still fresh, nutritious and delicious. (Yup, beauty standards affect food too!). Yet, suppliers struggle to sell this surplus and waste tons of $$$ storing and sending it to landfills.

• If a chicken is too big or has a broken bone, groceries wouldn't buy it because it looks strange on their shelves.
• Instead, TreeDots buys this surplus from them! It's a win-win. Not only do suppliers earn from the sale, but they save cash.

⚙️ How it works

Raw ingredients for F&Bs. Restaurants and cafes are happy to buy surplus food (like rejected grocery chicken) since they'll save on cost. Plus, the aesthetics aren't a big deal since they cook and plate dishes before serving.

• TreeDots' items are 20–30% cheaper as compared to average prices.

Group buying. TreeDots also launched a social group-buying feature. Order on their app, then collect your fresh groceries at your neighborhood collection point.

• Get discounts and buy surplus and non-surplus items from over 50+ suppliers in one app.

Logistics. TreeDots offers low-cost, efficient and reliable logistics, so suppliers can focus on processing and manufacturing food.

🌴What's next?

TreeDots might be heading to your neighborhood! It's eyeing Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines for expansion. It'll also be building tech to collect, fulfill and predict orders.