bonapp.eco is a startup founded in Romania with the purpose of combating food and beauty products waste by connecting consumers with food and cosmetics suppliers.

The company's app, available on iOS and Android, connects users with local retailers, including grocery stores, restaurants, shops, gas stations, bakeries, coffee shops, hotels, and beauty shops. Through the app, users can purchase products approaching their expiration date, at a 40% to 80% discount.

The idea for bonapp.eco came to Grégoire Vigroux, whom you might know from Fenix (sold in 2020 to Recommerce Group), another startup he founded, or from his position as cofounder, administrator and board member of TELUS International Europe, and to two other business partners. Together, they identified a problem with major negative social and environmental consequences.

40% of the world food supply, wasted

”On one hand, the world wastes 40% of its food supply, according to the WWF. Food waste alone accounts for 10% of all global greenhouse gases, which exacerbates climate change. In Romania alone, about 5 million tons of food are thrown away every year, which causes retailers significant losses. On the other hand, Romanian households devote almost 40% of their budget to food and beverages. It’s only 10% in France and Germany”, says Grégoire, adding that those 5 million tons of food wasted every year in Romania generate a carbon footprint of 102 million tons of CO2.

In addition, food prices in Romania have increased by 18.22% in 2022 versus 2021, the fastest price increase since the 1989 revolution.

So they launched bonapp.eco, a mobile app whose goal is to turn these environmental, economic and social challenges into a sustainable business opportunity, for the benefit of everyone. Their solution has been designed to be a win for consumers, a win for food retailers and a win for the planet.

Any retailer, including grocery store, restaurant, shop, gas station, bakery, coffee shop, hotel, and beauty shop, can join their growing network of partners.

According to Grégoire, the products that bonapp’s partners put on the app are close to their expiration date - most of the time, two to six days to it.

When launching the app in 2021, Grégoire was mainly focused on food, but a few months later the team identified another opportunity and entered a partnership with international brand Yves Rocher to combat waste generated by surplus beauty products and cosmetics in Romania.

At this point the partner network has 700 locations, with brands including Accor, Cora, Glovo, La Doi Pasi, PENNY, Starbucks, Noodle Pack, Donuterie, just to name a few.

When it comes to the users, there are 100,000 downloads of the app since launch (16 months ago), with a 34% growth between January and February and 26,000 EUR monthly GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) last month.

Bonapp, investment round open on SeedBlink

Bonapp was launched in November 2021, with an investment of 100,000 euros. Just two months later, the team behind the waste reduction app raised a seed investment of 800,000 euros from venture capital funds and companies such as Early Game Ventures, Impact Ventures, Roca X and Up, to accelerate its growth and expand beyond Bucharest, to Cluj.

And Grégoire’s plans are to expand bonapp.eco beyond Romania’s borders to Bulgaria, Moldova, Hungary and even Greece, hoping that by the end of this year they will reach 5,000 partner locations so that they can match the supply with the demand.

But to get bonapp.eco another few steps further, the founders need more money from investors. So they opened a round on SeedBlink, a co-investment platform from Romania.

“Thanks to this pre-seed extension through Seedblink, bonapp.eco will be on track to reach profitability in Q4 2023 and 1 million euros ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) in 2024”, says Grégoire.

The funding round on SeedBlink is still active and you can help Bonapp raise €275,000 to combat food waste and create benefits for people, retailers and the planet right here.