Building a Marketplace Around Food Waste and Affordability

Dubai-based foodtech startup Peekabox has raised an oversubscribed $1.5 million seed round as it looks to scale its surplus food marketplace across the UAE and eventually the wider GCC.

Founded in 2025 by brothers Hasan and Omair Sarwar, Peekabox enables restaurants, cafes, bakeries, hotels, and grocery retailers to sell surplus food through discounted “surprise boxes” offered directly to consumers through its platform.

The startup launches into the market with more than 1,000 stores signed across over 40 major food and retail brands, positioning itself as one of the largest early-stage surplus food marketplaces in the region.

The round is backed by a network of regional investors, operators, and advisors, with the company’s board chaired by Dr. Sameer Al Ansari, former Chairman and CEO of Dubai International Capital and board member of DIFC Authority.

Turning Excess Inventory Into Revenue

Food waste has become one of the region’s largest operational and sustainability challenges.

According to the company, the UAE wastes more than $3.5 billion worth of food annually, with approximately 38 percent of prepared food discarded. At the same time, rising living costs continue placing pressure on consumers across major Gulf cities.

Peekabox is attempting to solve both problems simultaneously.

The platform allows customers to purchase surplus food at discounts ranging between 50 and 70 percent while enabling businesses to recover value from inventory that would otherwise be thrown away.

Users reserve “surprise boxes” through the app and collect them during designated pickup windows. The model creates a low-friction way for businesses to monetize excess inventory without disrupting normal pricing structures or operational workflows.

“We’re solving two problems at once,” said Hasan Sarwar, CEO and Co-Founder of Peekabox. “Consumers get access to brands they already love at meaningful discounts every single day. Partners turn surplus stock into incremental revenue instead of waste.”

Launching With a Large Retail Footprint

One of Peekabox’s most significant advantages is the scale of its early partner network.

The company has already secured partnerships with major regional and international brands including Carrefour, Costa Coffee, Tim Hortons, Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme, Paul, Eataly, Union Coop, Pret A Manger, Armani Cafe, Grandiose, and Peet’s Coffee.

Its franchise and retail partners also include major operators such as Majid Al Futtaim, Apparel Group, Azadea, Americana, Cravia, and Emirates Leisure Retail.

This early supply-side expansion reflects a deliberate strategy. Rather than focusing first on consumer acquisition alone, Peekabox prioritized building strong merchant density and inventory availability before scaling demand.

According to COO and Co-Founder Omair Sarwar, the UAE provides an ideal launch environment due to its concentration of food and beverage outlets, high daily volumes of prepared food, and digitally native consumer base.

A Board Built Around Regional Scale

The company’s advisory structure reflects ambitions that extend well beyond a niche sustainability platform.

Peekabox’s board includes senior regional business leaders such as Fares Akkad, CEO of Meta MEA, Yasser Abdulmalak, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé MENA, and Mahdi Shafiei, Founder of Trifid Media.

Chairman Dr. Sameer Al Ansari described the company as tackling two major issues simultaneously: high food waste and rising living costs.

“If we can play a small part in addressing both of these issues then we have achieved success,” he said.

The composition of the board signals that investors and advisors see Peekabox not simply as a discount marketplace, but as infrastructure capable of reshaping food consumption and inventory management patterns across the region.

Building the GCC’s Surplus Food Infrastructure

The newly raised capital will primarily support go-to-market expansion within the UAE, including marketing, operations, and scaling the company’s execution capabilities.

Following deeper penetration across Dubai and the wider UAE market, Peekabox plans to expand across the GCC, with Saudi Arabia identified as the next major target market.

The opportunity in Saudi Arabia alone is significant. According to the company, the Kingdom generates approximately 4.1 million tonnes of surplus food annually across more than 137,000 addressable stores.

As sustainability regulations tighten and consumer awareness around waste increases, marketplaces that can efficiently redistribute surplus inventory are likely to become increasingly valuable.

The Rise of Circular Commerce in the Gulf

Peekabox emerges at a time when sustainability and affordability are converging into a major consumer and operational trend.

Globally, surplus food platforms have gained traction by combining environmental impact with economic incentives. In the Gulf, however, the category remains relatively underdeveloped despite high food waste levels and dense urban retail ecosystems.

This creates a significant opening for localized platforms capable of adapting the model to regional consumption habits and operational structures.

The company’s approach also reflects the growing importance of circular commerce models, where unused inventory is redistributed rather than discarded.

Building More Than a Discount App

Although the company’s immediate focus is food rescue and affordability, Peekabox’s long-term opportunity may extend further into retail infrastructure and sustainability analytics.

Platforms managing large-scale surplus inventory generate valuable operational data around demand forecasting, waste patterns, and supply chain inefficiencies. Over time, this intelligence layer could become strategically important for retailers and food operators seeking to optimize margins and reduce waste.

For now, however, the company’s mission remains straightforward.

Help businesses waste less. Help consumers spend less. And build a scalable marketplace where both objectives reinforce each other.

Mohammed Abubakr

Mohammed Abubakr is the Founder & Editor of StartupMuslim.com. Through StartupMuslim, he documents the journeys of Muslim founders across industries, focusing on the challenges they overcome, the vision that drives them, and the impact they create.His work centers on building a narrative layer for the global Muslim startup ecosystem—one that not only highlights success, but also captures the process, discipline, and values behind it. By conducting in-depth interviews and publishing founder stories, he aims to inspire and enable the next generation of Muslim entrepreneurs to think bigger and build with purpose.