Food saving app Munch anounces Series A funding

Today Munch, one of the largest food-saving apps in Central-Eastern Europe, announced its Series A funding round. 

Munch was founded in 2020 by Botond Zsoldos, Bence Zwecker, Albert Wettstein, and Kirill Perepelica with a shared mission to combat food waste through technology. 

Restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, and hotels leverage the Munch platform to sell their unsold, high-quality food at reduced prices. 

In November 2022, Munch merged with Czech-based app Nesnězeno, founded by Jakub Henni, and together they now boast over 3,000 partners and more than 1.5 million app downloads across three countries. 

To date, Munch has saved a total of over 1.5 million food packages in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

These efforts have also been recognised on the level of policymakers — Munch has won Sustainable Company of the Year award and the Food Waste Prevention Award at the Hungarian National Agricultural and Food Industry Exhibition.

The amount raised is undisclosed but Piton Capital leads this funding round. with co-investment by FJ Labs, and participation from Christopher Muhr, co-founder of Groupon and ex-COO of a German unicorn Auto1, and Kai Hansen, co-founder of Lieferando, a leading European delivery startup and currently a board member of Booksy. 

Also participating are existing investors Fiedler Capital, Silicon Gardens, Márton Szőke, Péter Záborszky, STRT Holding and László Czirják. 

After successes in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the company is ready to fight food waste in Romania and beyond.

Bence Zwecker, CEO of Munch, shared: 

“The involvement of top-tier global marketplace investors like Piton Capital and FJ Labs, known for backing giants like Alibaba and Delivery Hero, is a testament to Munch's potential. Having the best possible investors for our vision and mission is not just a validation; it's a powerful alliance to drive our sustainable mission globally." 

Munch successfully collaborates with Starbucks in three countries, PENNY in the Czech Republic and Hungary, and has an exclusive presence in every SPAR and INTERSPAR store nationwide in Hungary.

With the new funding, Munch is embarking on its largest expansion so far, targeting Romania, where, according to European Union statistics, over 2.2 million tons of food are wasted annually. 

Lead image: Munch. Photo: uncredited.