Mathews Martin, one of the co-founders of Plenti, an app-based surplus/unsold food marketplace, remembers how surplus food was wasted at the mess of the Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur, where he was an MBA student. That the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) was next door and the food could be shared with the people — bystanders, and patients in need — was an idea that could not be implemented. The only option was to throw it all away. This was not food that had gone bad.   

The Plenti app was launched in Thiruvananthapuram in October 2025, and made its debut in Kochi in March this year. It lists restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets where surplus/unsold food, which would otherwise go to waste, is available and can be bought at one-third the original price.