More than a third of food is wasted worldwide, with 6% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the waste, the majority, around 70%, occurs before the consumer level.
This Perfekto believes an imperfect food subscription box can help. In the year Launched in 2021, the Mexico-based company works with more than 70 producers to “save” food and deliver it to consumers. Subscribers used to get a “surprise box” but now they can personalize their box and choose how many products they want. On the back end, the company developed software that automates routing and logistics.
Last year, the company was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 batch, grew to 3,000 active monthly subscribers and reached $1 million in annual revenue, co-founder and CEO Jan Henvirta told TechCrunch. Subscribers average two boxes per month.
“We see an expensive problem that needs an urgent solution,” he added. “We felt it was time to do this because no more time should be wasted. We have also seen a trend towards consumers taking more responsibility.
This is a costly problem, with an estimated $940 billion in food waste each year. Meanwhile, 9.7 million people in Latin America are food insecure. In addition, grocery delivery businesses in the business-to-consumer space are typically a capital-intensive business. Even top venture-backed companies struggle to achieve profitability.
Henvirta said it is possible to build a grocery delivery business with positive unit economics. Since December, Perfecto has grown more than 10x across all key performance indicators and saved 1 million pounds of production.
“We were very capital efficient, reaching $1 million in ARR while spending less than $1 million,” he added. “This is possible thanks to our subscription model, efficient logistics model and strong organic growth.”
Raised in a farming village in Switzerland and with a background in financial services, Heinvirta moved to Mexico to meet Anahi Sosa, the daughter of a citrus grower, and saw how a flaw she told TechCrunch affected her father’s business. She led Uber’s grocery initiative in Latin America and later helped launch Cornershop in Costa Rica.
Heinvirta and Sosa, chief operating officer, launched Perfecto. They recently brought on Juan Andrade as their third co-founder and chief supply chain officer. Andrade has been the company’s logistics consultant since launching and leading Walmart’s e-commerce logistics operations in Mexico.
Perfecto founders Jan Henvirta, Anahi Sosa and Juan Andrade (Image credit: Perfekto)
The company is part of a group of startups looking to save produce and other food items from landfills. Today, it is announcing $1.1 million in pre-seed funding to expand the program throughout Mexico City. Last year we saw a number of them get funding for approach capital. For example, Full Harvest raised $23 million in Series B funding in late 2021 for its business-to-business marketplace, which can connect produce buyers and sellers to quickly close deals on surplus or imperfect crops.
“We have a lot of interest from other cities, and I can definitely plan our international expansion, but it’s so big that we’re focusing on Mexico City right now,” Henvirta said. “We plan to reach a $2 million annualized run rate in the next six to eight months, and there’s room to grow as much as we can.”
Looking beyond fruit and vegetables, Perfecto is looking at some new opportunities and is working with large consumer packaged goods companies looking to partner to reduce food waste with short-lived or damaged packaging. He said there has been an increase in demand from businesses registering for a box of fruit every week.
The company has yet to launch a crowdfunding campaign, but in the meantime, Henvirta intends to invest the new capital in three areas: improving operations and technology, expanding its product catalog to provide customers with more variety and growth in the B2B space.
