“40% Of Food Is Wasted In India Every Year; We’re On A Mission To Help Reduce That,” Says The Founder Of Surplus Food Delivery App ‘Fozo’

In Bangalore, often hailed as the epicentre of the Indian startup ecosystem, innovative ventures are sprouting to address pressing societal issues.

Among them stands Fozo, a homegrown surplus food delivery platform founded by Sumit Kumar.

This bootstrapped startup is not just another food-delivery app; it’s a mission-driven enterprise tackling India’s food waste crisis, where 40% of the food produced annually is wasted.

As the nation grapples with being among the top 10 food-wasting nations, discarding 78.1 million tonnes of food worth around ₹1 lakh crore each year, Fozo emerges as a beacon of sustainability in a competitive market dominated by giants like Zomato and Swiggy.

Bangalore, with its mix of tech talent and entrepreneurial spirit, provides the perfect backdrop for Fozo. The city, home to countless startups, fosters ideas that blfinish technology with real-world problems.

Sumit, a 29-year-old commerce graduate and former product designer from Jamshedpur (the land of Tatas), draws from his farming family roots to fuel this venture.

His journey reflects the resilience seen across the startup world, where founders pivot from stable careers to tackle inefficiencies.

1. Sumit Kumar, the founder & CEO of Fozo — Sumit Kumar, the founder & CEO of Fozo

The Background: The Inspiration Behind Fozo

Sumit’s path to founding Fozo launched in his hometown of Jamshedpur, India’s 3rd cleanest city, built by the Tatas on principles of sustainability.

Growing up in a farming family, Sumit witnessed the toil behind every grain.

“This idea had been brewing in my mind for a while. I hail from Jamshedpur and grew up watching the Tatas plant multiple trees for every one cut, promoting water and electricity conservation everywhere,” recalls Sumit Kumar during an exclusive interview with Startup Pedia.

His school reinforced messages against waste, and his father’s stories about rice cultivation created food waste feel deeply personal.

After completing his undergraduate degree in commerce and passing the first level of Chartered Accountancy (CA) examinations, Sumit worked as an accountant at an MNC before transitioning to product design.

From 2019 to mid-2025, Sumit honed his skills across Mumbai, Noida, and Bangalore. His final role as a product designer was at Hubilo, where he was part of the exit team during the company’s acquisition.

The eureka moment struck in early 2025 at a Bangalore restaurant, where he saw piles of fresh yet unsold food destined for the bin.

Digging deeper, Sumit uncovered many alarming stats and deduced that “India doesn’t have a food shortage problem; it has a food wastage problem.”

Interviews and conversations with over 30 Bangalore restaurants revealed owners’ struggles with unpredictable demand, leading to excess inventory that could feed half the population of neighbourhoods like HSR Layout.

This inspiration led to a pilot programme in March 2025, starting with a simple WhatsApp community in HSR Layout. It quickly grew to over 200 active members, connecting consumers craving fresh food with outlets offering surplus at up to 50% off.

“During the pilot programme, I picked up and delivered orders myself to gather insights and feedback, both from food outlets and consumers, validating the concept,” Sumit shares.

Building the Fozo Platform: From Beta to Commercial Operations

Emboldened by the pilot’s success, Sumit ramped up the tech development in July 2025, creating an app and website to scale the vision.

By October 2025, he registered Fozo Shop Private Limited, formalising the venture.

A beta launch followed in November, with the app hitting the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store by December 2025.

Full commercial operations launched in January 2026, transforming Fozo into a marketplace for surplus food.

A delivery partner of Fozo at the doorstep of a customer

How the Fozo App Works: A Win-Win for All

Fozo operates as a marketplace for surplus food, a hyper-local tech platform that rescues fresh excess inventory from restaurants, cafes, and other food outlets.

Unlike Zomato and Swiggy’s on-demand model, Fozo focutilizes on liquidating time-bound stock, ensuring no compromise on quality.

Partners list their surplus via POS integration, often as ‘Mystery Bags’ or specific meals, and consumers (app utilizers) browse deals for doorstep delivery.

The process is straightforward: partners assess unsold items post-lunch or pre-closing, and listings are automated in real time.

Users book at massive discounts, and Fozo’s green fleet handles delivery efficiently. Each purchase tracks impact, boosting a ‘Green Score’ for rescued food and reduced carbon emissions.

“Fozo ensures every meal finds a plate, delivering a win-win-win: Consumers: Premium food at 50% off. Businesses: Recovered costs and boosted sustainability metrics. Planet: Reduced carbon emissions from waste,” Sumit Kumar, the founder & CEO of Fozo, explains.

Currently limited to a few areas in Bangalore, like HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Koramangala, and Indiranagar, Fozo tarobtains ‘value-conscious urbanites’—students, young professionals, and office workers seeking premium food without premium prices.

Since its full commercial launch in January 2026, the Fozo app has seen over 250 downloads on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, with more than 500 orders per month.

The average order value hovers at ₹100–₹150, aligning perfectly with Fozo’s budobtain-frifinishly proposition and driving high customer satisfaction along with organic growth through word-of-mouth.

A delivery partner of Fozo on his way to deliver surplus food to customers

Challenges and Innovations in a Competitive Market:

Launching in Bangalore’s cut-throat startup landscape wasn’t without hurdles. As a bootstrapped startup, Sumit juggled roles amid a pre-revenue phase.

Consumer perception posed the hugegest challenge: skepticism linked ‘surplus’ to stale food, despite rigorous quality checks.

“Fozo faced utilizers’ skepticism around food safety and freshness, with common questions like ‘Is this food safe?’ and ‘When was it prepared?’ lingering as barriers to adoption,” Sumit admits to Startup Pedia.

To counter this misconception, Fozo underwent a strategic rebrand, ditching ‘waste’ for terms like ‘deal marketplace‘ and ‘surplus.’

Gamifying the utilizer journey with ‘Mystery Bags’ turned purchases into exciting unboxings.

Another key challenge came in the domain of operations. Manual inventory logs by busy restaurant staff led to errors, so Fozo invested in a tech-centric overhaul, integrating with POS systems like Petpooja for real-time accuracy.

This has yielded high satisfaction, with reduced waste and increased revenue for food outlet partners.

Fozo’s USPs shine through its market differentiators: automating the surplus cycle via POS integration, turning losses into profits.

“We are the only platform in India that automates the ‘surplus cycle’ for restaurants via a tech-led POS integration, turning their potential loss into profit while feeding consumers fresh food at up to 50% off,” Sumit claims.

In a highly competitive food delivery app market, this anti-waste core mission sets Fozo apart, fostering referrals, goodwill, and name recognition.

The Road Ahead: A Vision of Scaling Sustainability

Fozo’s long-term vision is ambitious, aiming to build digital infrastructure for a ‘surplus economy.’

With a low burn rate under ₹1.2 lakhs per month, all bootstrapped from Sumit’s personal savings, the young startup eyes a pre-seed round from venture funds to bolster tech, operations, and marketing for pan-India expansion.

Plans include dominating the Bangalore market first by creating dense clusters, then hitting five major Indian metros.

Diversifying into a B2B grocery marketplace for supermarket perishables is another key goal, alongside launching a grocery and FMCG surplus vertical.

“At Fozo, our vision is to build the digital infrastructure for a ‘surplus economy,’ positioning Fozo’s platform as Asia’s model solution to surplus food challenges. This is just the launchning of our greater ambitions ahead,” Sumit concludes by announcing his long-term roadmap.

Tarobtaining 1,500 active utilizers by March 2026 and 35,000 by year-finish, Fozo projects a net annual revenue of around ₹50 crore by Year 4.

In the global surplus food market, projected to reach US$ 89.14 billion by 2030 with a 7.8% CAGR, this Bangalore-based startup’s scalable model promises enormous growth.

Fozo exemplifies the Indian startup ecosystem’s potential: a Jamshedpur-born founder leveraging Bangalore’s innovation hub to solve a national crisis.

By reducing food waste, Fozo benefits consumers, businesses, and the planet, proving that sustainability can be profitable too.

FAQ

Fozo is a hyper-local surplus food delivery startup that connects consumers with restaurants and cafés offering fresh unsold food at discounted prices. Fozo’s platform aims to reduce food wastage while building meals more affordable.

Who is the founder of Fozo?

Sumit Kumar, a 29-year-old former product designer from Jamshedpur, founded Fozo in Bangalore.

When was Fozo launched?

Fozo launched as a pilot, on WhatsApp, in March 2025, and entered full commercial operations in January 2026 after its app was launched in late 2025.

What type of products and services does Fozo offer?

The Fozo app offers discounted surplus meals and ‘mystery bags’ from partner food outlets, delivered to utilizers’ homes, while also providing restaurants a platform to liquidate excess inventory and reduce waste.

Where is the Fozo app currently active?

Fozo operates exclusively in Bangalore, focapplying on high-demand areas such as HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Koramangala, and Indiranagar.

Source link