Do you know that tonnes of surplus food from hotels, restaurants, and bakeries end up in landfills every day as waste? But now, an MBA graduate from Kerala is helping hotels, restaurants, and bakeries prevent their surplus food from ending up in landfills.
While pursuing his MBA at IIM Nagpur, Mathews Martin from Thiruvananthapuram noticed surplus food from his college mess being routinely dumped, even as poor people outside the nearby AIIMS hospital remained hungry.
Mathews was shocked when he realised that the mess staff were directed to dispose of the surplus food if there were no takers. He later discovered that India wastes nearly 70 million tonnes of food every year, with almost 30 percent of it coming from the retail and restaurant sector.
This disturbing trend prompted Mathews to come up with a solution to ensure that surplus food, which would otherwise go to waste, reaches the needy.
“It didn’t make sense. We are wasting food on one side while people are dying of hunger on the other,” Mathews told Open Digest.
His relentless pursuit of a solution gave shape to Plenti, a food surplus marketplace that connects unsold food from restaurants and bakeries to consumers at nearly one-third of the original price, preventing it from ending up in landfills.
While NGOs and food banks were attempting to address the issue, Mathews felt the problem required a scalable, tech-driven solution. He found similar surplus food marketplaces operating across Europe and North America and decided to build on a gap that existed in the Indian market.
Despite securing a high-paying corporate job at a multinational mobile manufacturing company, he chose to chase his passion and build the marketplace, which he named Plenti.
“The initial days of designing the platform, building the MVP, and validating the concept were met with stiff resistance. Restaurant owners were hesitant, as they were sceptical about the project. The idea of selling surplus food was new, and many saw no incentive in what wasn’t their primary revenue stream,” Mathews said.
However, with a tangible app and early traction, conversations began to change. Support from the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association further strengthened Plenti’s credibility, allowing it to onboard a significant number of partners in Thiruvananthapuram.
Plenti’s pilot launch in Thiruvananthapuram exceeded expectations, recording 20,000–25,000 downloads within weeks.
Plenti operates on a lean marketplace model. Restaurants list surplus food at reduced prices; users place orders and pick them up themselves. The platform charges a modest 10–15 percent commission per order, keeping margins thin but sustainable. “There’s no delivery fleet, no heavy operations,” Mathews explains. “We’re just connecting supply and demand.”
That simplicity has allowed Plenti to scale efficiently while staying aligned with its social mission.
Today, Plenti has over 150 restaurant partners in Thiruvananthapuram and has begun onboarding in Kochi, with plans to expand to Kozhikode, Thrissur, and Coimbatore in the coming months. By the end of the year, the team hopes to establish a presence across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and parts of Karnataka.
Currently, the platform saves 10,000–11,000 meals every month by redirecting food that would otherwise end up in landfills.
For Mathews, Plenti isn’t just about affordable food. It’s about rethinking convenience in a country grappling with both waste and hunger.
“Every order saves food from the landfill,” he says. “At the same time, users get a great deal, restaurants gain visibility, and we reduce environmental harm. It’s a win-win for everyone,” he adds.
