Surplus Indonesia – Greeneration Foundation

Investing in Impact

P4G awarded the partnership with US $350,000 in grant funding. 

Indonesia is the second largest food loss and waste producer globally. It wastes about 115-184 kilograms per person per year, which totals about $39 billion in economic losses. All the food wasted could meet the nutrient needs of 61 – 125 million people a year. 

Surplus was launched in 2020 with the aim of reducing food loss and waste from restaurants and local food businesses and giving people affordable food options. Local businesses can sell overstocked products or imperfect produce, all of which is still safely edible, at a 50% discount directly to consumers. Surplus has positioned itself as a market leader in Indonesia through an easy-to-use app and agreements with ride-hailing companies and food providers. 

Surplus allows people to access affordable food options; allows businesses to reach new customers, prevent financial losses and reduce food disposal costs; and avoids greenhouse gas emissions by diverting edible food from landfills. 

Key achievements during the P4G grant period between 2024 – 2026:

• More than US $470,000 in economic value of surplus products recovered
• More than 110,000 individuals used the Surplus app to access rescued or upcycled food
• Rescued more than 51 tons of food 

Surplus had a few key goals to make it an attractive and scalable business. These included building a robust supply of merchants, strengthening its technological architecture, and transitioning from a purely digital platform to a hybrid circular model. 

On the supply side, Surplus onboarded almost 600 brands through targeted outreach, networking and incentivization efforts. The startup prioritized high risk food retailers such as bakeries and restaurants who do not use preservatives that can extend the shelf life of food. 

During this time, Surplus has also made significant improvements to its app to enhance user experience and handle high user volumes. These improvements improved processing capacity, system reliability and data protection to be in compliance with existing regulatory standards and invoke high levels of user trust. 

Surplus also set up the first Surplus Experience store in June 2025. The store sold near-expiration date snacks and smoothies and juices made from imperfect fruits. In parallel, Surplus also launched Juicible, a mobile initiative that uses electric vehicle (JuLing) carts to bring affordable, upcycled fruit juices and near-expiry-date snacks to communities. Through brand building efforts, 30 JuLing carts were deployed and more than 82,500 near-expiry snacks and juices were purchased vastly surpassing the startup’s initial target of 10,000 purchases. These innovations allowed Surplus to expand its footprint and market, and transition from a digital to hybrid model. 

Surplus was an active participant in several policy and regulatory dialogues to improve the environment for food waste reduction and circular economy regulations. This included participating in a GRASP 2030 Working Group on Food Redistribution to develop a national food redistribution guideline; Strategic Sector Cooperation initiatives convened by the Embassy of Denmark; and meetings with the P4G Indonesia National Platform ecosystem to discuss regulatory system improvements. 

The partnership produced two knowledge products:

• A case study outlining the startup’s successes and challenges 
• A policy paper with recommendations for strengthening the food rescue enabling system 

The partnership comprised the following partners: Surplus Indonesia (lead business partner); Greeneration Foundation (lead administrative partner).