Somdip Dey, the company’s creator, was a computer science master’s student at the University of Manchester when his parents were killed in a vehicle accident. He sent all of his money back to his parents in India to help with their medical expenditures, but he ran into a situation that all too many people have faced: how was he going to eat himself if he wasn’t going to get paid for another week?
“Fortunately, this occurred around the time when the summer vacation began, so many students were moving out and practically tossing away unopened food,” Dey said. “I noticed there was a lot of waste that might be put to good use by other people.”
This kept him supplied during a crisis, but as an AI researcher, he began to wonder how technology could assist reduce food waste and feed the hungry. Dey co-founded Nosh Technologies with co-founder Suman Saha after completing his master’s degree and moving on to pursue an at the University of Essex.
The Nosh app, which has nearly 13,000 users on Android and iOS, allows users to track the expiration dates of their goods, reminding them to eat what they bought before it spoils.
The app learns about the user’s consumption and waste patterns using artificial intelligence (AI), delivering weekly insights that assist them to reduce waste and save money at the grocery shop. Users may scan barcodes and even grocery receipts into the app, but they can also manually enter data. After loading the contents of a user’s pantry and refrigerator into the app, they can look up existing recipes online to help them use up their stock before it spoils. Dey hopes to provide a paid subscription in the future, which would include access to an AI that would develop fresh, unique recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand.
“Our current users indicated that by utilizing the app, they were able to save nearly 40 to 50 pounds each month that they would have otherwise thrown away,” Dey told TechCrunch. Nosh is revealing its newest features as part of Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt, which are more in line with Dey’s initial vision for the company. These include Nosh Daily, a blog that complements the app, and Nosh Shop, a service that allows businesses to sell food that is about to spoil at a reduced price.
The firm can start earning money by collecting a 10% service charge – it has only raised £33,000 in pre-seed money and has nine employees right now. According to Dey, around 3% of the service price will be donated to food waste charities. Too Good to go, a European company, has secured $31.1 million for the same purpose as Nosh Shop. However, Nosh distinguishes itself, according to Dey, by allowing eateries to sell their meals at a greater price than to Good to Go. This would encourage more eateries to use their app (and, as a result, reduce food waste) because they would make more money.
