East Ventures Leads TreeDots Funding, Presents "Social Commerce" Solution for Grocery

TreeDots, startup social commerce Singaporean origin for foodstuffs (including maximizing the potential of what's left of decent foodstuffs), announced a series A funding round of $11 million (over 157 billion Rupiah) led by East Ventures (Growth Fund) and Amasia. Other investors who joined were ACTIVE Fund, Seeds Capital, writer Nir Eyal, and actress Fiona Xie.

This funding will be used for platform development, optimization of the company's food logistics, TreeLogs and regional expansion, having entered Malaysia last year. No mention of the next country targeted.

To DailySocial.id, TreeDots Co-founder & CEO Tylor Jong said, his party was in the middle of deeper discussions regarding the plan. "We have plans to expand our regional coverage and we are in the middle of understanding [the next country] where it will make sense for us," Jong said.

TreeDots was founded by Tylor Jong, Lau Jia Cai, and Nicholas Lim in 2018. The company is a marketplace for surplus and imperfect foodstuffs, in response to the problem of wasted food, especially food that can be consumed but thrown away. TreeDots technology helps redistribute unsold inventory from suppliers to businesses such as restaurants and cafes, enabling them to obtain affordable food supplies.

Globally, a third of all food produced for consumption is wasted. In Asia, most of these problems are caused by inefficient supply chains. Foods that are not aesthetically perfect are often dumped in landfills, even though they are still as fresh and nutritious as foods that are commonly found on grocery store shelves. This surplus food is often burned or left to rot, producing methane and other greenhouse gases that have an 86 times more harmful impact on global warming than carbon dioxide.

“We realized that grocery store chains probably wouldn't buy a chicken that was too big or had a broken bone because it would look weird on their shelves. But F&B outlets don't care because they will cut and arrange the food before they serve it. So if they can buy essentially the same product for up to 90 percent cheaper than alternative products, they'll be very happy. This prompted us to start a surplus food marketplace to match the supply and demand for these products," Jong explained separately in an official statement, Thursday (11/11).

The target users of the TreeDots platform are F&B franchises and social commerce to accommodate group buying needs. Thus, consumers can buy the same product at a greater discounted price. TreeDots sends multiple orders at once to a single address and group buyers can pick up their individual orders from that address. This move allows buyers to save on logistics costs, as well as reduce emissions when compared to traditional e-commerce models that require a special journey for each order shipped.

On the sales side, prior to joining TreeDots, suppliers often paid for a delivery service to send their waste to a landfill. With TreeDots, they can now earn additional income from these materials and feel satisfied that they can help preserve the earth.

TreeDots also helps digitize suppliers' operations using an app, and they recently launched TreeLogs, a cold chain logistics offering (cold-chain logistics) which increases the efficiency of the suppliers' operating processes. This vertically integrated ecosystem allows upstream suppliers to focus their efforts on their area of ​​excellence, namely food processing and production.

“Food wasted is already a trillion dollar issue, but what excites us is the fact that suppliers are starting to use the TreeDots system for their entire income, not just leftovers. If one of their trucks can make one delivery to an area, TreeDots can make five deliveries on the same trip by working with the entire supplier group. The increased network density allows for lower logistics costs and emission levels,” said East Ventures Managing Partner Roderick Purwana.

Value Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) TreeDots has grown more than 4 times over the years. “There are a lot of businesses serving the F&B industry that are having a hard time during the pandemic. However, we are very impressed with the ability of the TreeDots team to drive exponential growth amid difficult circumstances,” said Amasia Managing Partner John Kim, who also led TreeDots' initial funding round in 2019.

As TreeDots business expands, Janet Sarah Neo, Vice President, Corporate Sustainability & Government Affairs at Lazada and Executive Board Member at Temasek Foundation Liveability, will join TreeDots as a Board Observer.

Startup with the same passion

With the same passion to maximize the potential of surplus food, a local startup named Surplus has been present in Indonesia. The surplus allows F&B business players to sell excess and imperfect produce food products that are still safe and suitable for consumption at certain hours before closing the shop with a half price discount.

Surplus partners who have joined are said to have more than 400 spread across Jabodetabek, Bandung, and Yogyakarta. Most of them are engaged in businesses that produce a lot of excess food products, such as bakery & pastry, cafes, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, catering and agriculture.