Munch, a B2C food surplus marketplace active in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Romania, has merged with Bonapp, a similar initiative born in Romania. Munch co-founder Kirill Perepelica told Romania Insider more about the company's plans for expansion in the country and the region, how the local e-commerce and delivery culture influences its activity, and its other initiatives to prevent food waste.

Munch, founded in 2020 in Hungary by entrepreneurs Botond Zsoldos, Bence Zwecker, Albert Wettstein, and Kirill Perepelica, and Bonapp, launched in November 2021 by Grégoire Vigroux, Diego Roy de Lachaise, and Luka Zivkovic, share the goal of combating food waste. In addition, the two scale-ups have similar values and cultures, both important elements in deciding to join forces, Munch co-founder & Chief Expansion Officer Kirill Perepelica explains. The cooperative mindset brought the Munch founders together in the first place when they were students, working on the same idea without knowing.

Both Munch and Bonapp connect consumers with HoReCa operators and retailers offering surplus food at significant discounts. With rising food prices and food waste an ever-present issue, the two companies plan to expand to Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Serbia, and Slovenia this year. Due to its size and e-commerce growth, Romania is a key market, and the plan is to reach an increasing number of cities here. The local preference for using delivery services meant more emphasis had to be put on explaining that users need to pick up the food packages themselves. Munch's model has been to offer surprise food packages, which are easier for retail partners to create and ensure more supply for users. Meanwhile, Bonapp's platform provides access to specific items as well, and the two options are still being evaluated. More in the interview below.

How would you describe Munch's expansion strategy? What made Romania an attractive market?

Our expansion strategy is market by market. We are really focused on understanding the local culture, the local people, and the local needs. This is how we started in Central Europe; there were other platforms similar to ours - this [e.n. food waste] is a global problem, right? But we wanted to make a local solution. This is what we aim for: to try to adapt always to the local culture and make the best possible solution for local needs. Of course, in terms of ambitions and plans, we want to be first in the region. After that, we also want to become a global player.

Romania is a key strategic market for us because of the population, market size, and e-commerce growth. It's a really vibrant country. This is why we have also decided to make this market a success. We quickly realized that we share the same values, culture, and goals to fight against food waste with the Bonapp team. This is why we believe that the Romanian market is one of the best in the region for us to expand to.

Romania is not only about Bucharest. It is a big country with many beautiful cities. This is why it's interesting for us to have nationwide coverage and not just be present in one or two cities but be available for our food-saving community everywhere we go.

This is a strategic moment for us because we are becoming one company. We have big plans. We realized that Bonapp already built a strong brand. We spent a lot of time with the team to understand how they work and see if there is chemistry between us. We totally saw that there is. I think the team is at least as important as the business itself. We are really happy to join forces with Bonapp and make an even bigger impact, not just in Romania but beyond, together.

What do you plan for Romania this year?

Thanks to our retail partners, like Penny, we are on a good path to having nationwide coverage. That's the goal for this year: to make sure at the end of the year, when someone opens the application, they will find something in their area. Our goal for this year is to penetrate and expand throughout the country even more and make food-saving opportunities accessible to users.

What target number of users and businesses would you like to see enrolled on the platform?

Combined, we had more than EUR 7 million turnover in 2024 and want to at least double it for 2025. In Romania, we have ambitious plans in terms of how much we want to save [e.n. food packages]. I would say we even want to more than triple our results so far.

What are some differences you have noticed across the markets you're active in - in terms of user attitudes, openness of the businesses, and more?

In each country, the segmentation of our supply - of our partners - is a bit different. In some countries, we have more supermarkets, more bakeries; in others, we have more sweet shops. In Hungary, for instance, less than 10% of our saved packages come from restaurants. In the Czech Republic, it's close to 20%. This kind of segmentation is the kind of external factor that we cannot really influence; but we can be conscious about it, how we want to aim for our partners, and what the needs of the customers are.

On the user side, we are constantly doing interviews, and there are differences in each country. In Romania, what we realized, compared to the other countries, was that the e-commerce penetration is much higher and there are a lot of delivery platforms as well. In Hungary, we only have two, but in Romania, I already know three market leaders. Because of that, we see that Romanian users are a bit more conscious already about how they use these apps. What we need to emphasize more is to make sure they understand that we are not delivering the packages, but they need to go and pick it up in person. This was one of the experiences we got feedback on from the users: they believe the delivery service will provide the packages. In our case, they need to pick it up in person. I think this is because of the booming e-commerce and delivery culture in Romania.

Munch offers surprise packages. What's the balance between these products and those where the user knows the content?

In other countries, I would say 95% of the packages are surprise packages. In Romania, if we refer to the earlier question, there is also feedback from the customers that sometimes they would want to know what they get. Because of that, Bonapp created this solution to access specific products. Currently we are still analyzing what are the results and how the two models compare.

From our experience, we are very happy with the surprise packages - I think also in Romania some of the customers believe that it's actually beneficial for them - because it's much easier for the retail partner to create surprise packages. Because of that, more and more supplies are available than if it would be only one product, because it wouldn't take more time for the vendor to create this package, to administrate properly the exact packages. This is one of the benefits for the users: they can have more supply because it's easier for the vendor.

Some of our customers are actually telling us that they feel a bit like it's a Pokemon Go for food, that they are just walking around the city, they see where they can save food, and they come and pick it up in person. It's a kind of gamified. You don't know what you get exactly; it's like a Kinder present when you were a small child. It's also a benefit for some of the users. Not everyone is the same, of course, and we need to understand exactly the data and dig deeper. Based on that, we will evaluate and decide on the exact products vs surprise packages in the future, but in general, surprise packages are simpler, and we like simple solutions.

In Hungary, you introduced Munch Market to tackle the issue of food waste in the supply chain. Will you expand the project to other markets?

With Munch Market, we realized that manufacturers also have the same issue as retailers. They also have a lot of surplus stock that they cannot sell to the retail chains. Because of that, we wanted to provide a solution. This is still in pilot mode in Hungary. Based on its success, we will decide where to expand next, but I'm really bullish myself about the Romanian market because of the booming e-commerce market that I described earlier. I think there is potential here for this service as well.

What areas with potential for Munch do you see at the moment? What other stakeholders would be interested in the app?

In Romania, we already have a strong presence in the HoReCa segment. We have a lot of bakeries and restaurants. We have already partnered with Penny, one of the first big retail chains to partner with Bonapp in Romania. I think this is the way to go: to get even more retail partners on board because, with the help of these retail partners, we can make food-saving opportunities even more accessible throughout the whole country, not just in Bucharest. They are a significant asset to this because they have nationwide coverage, and all their outlets are present everywhere.

What about food banks?

In Romania, I didn't have the possibility yet to introduce myself to the food banks, but I would be always very happy to do so. In other countries, we already have a strong, lasting relationship with them. We also developed a platform for the food banks. It's called Munch Charity. Food banks have their own logistics, or sometimes they have partner organizations that have their own logistics to transport the food from the retail chains. But in some smaller shops, it's not worth the money to involve the logistics of the large trucks because there is such a small amount of food. Because of that, we figured out, 'What if we create a platform for smaller shops where they can directly donate to the end users and they don't need to invest in expensive logistics.' It would make sense from the return-on-investment perspective as well. We developed this solution together with the Hungarian Food Bank Association. It's already in use in some of the stores of Tesco Hungary. They are using it, but the operator of this platform will be the food bank at the end of the day. We were the player developing this feature and this platform.

This is the kind of partnership model that we can do. Every time we see an opportunity where we are not the right solution, but a food bank is, we're always trying to promote each other and help each other.  I would say we are a bit in a different part of the value chain. Munch and Bonapp are still the last step of the discounting system, and after that, the food bank is the next stakeholder that can help to save food.

What else is next? What do your expansion plans depend on?

We see good expansion opportunities in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria, but I think we can consider other expansion opportunities across Europe. But first, these are the most realistic next steps for us. After that, we always keep our eyes open for global opportunities. And based on that, we will decide.

Before we enter a market, we have preliminary research on the vendor side, how big is the market to understand exactly how fast we can grow. That will be one of the main deciding factors. Of course, the competitive situation is something that we are considering, as well as user behavior. We always try to talk to users first before taking these decisions, do some interviews and also speak with someone from the industry that has similar experience or background […]

You co-founded Munch when you were a student. How did that come about?

We came together as a group of funders by a sequence of accidents. My friend Boti and I were working on a university subject, and we wanted to do something in practice, not just in theory. We wanted to make an impact. We figured out there was a second pair of people who were working on the same idea. We didn't know them before, but I randomly met Albert at a conference. We sat down and said, 'Why don't we do this together? Why compete if we have the same goals?' It's similar to what we are doing now with Bonapp. We always had this cooperative mindset.

We just decided we wanted to do this. It was in the summer of 2020. We worked from the morning till evening, and we got positive responses. After one month, we launched our platform. We were also in the middle of the Covid pandemic, so we didn't have in-person lectures. Because of that, we had even more time saved for working. All of us already had some entrepreneurial project in the past, or we were working part-time. When I sat down with my three co-founders in 2020, I felt we could really build something unique together because we all have the drive and the passion to make this happen. With what we do, we always take care that it should be good for the people, the planet, and the profits. This is why it's also a passion for us, not just a business.

What has the experience of being an entrepreneur in this region been?

Being an entrepreneur in Central and Eastern Europe has its pros and cons. I would list to the cons not that much funding. We got funding at the end of the day. Regarding the pros, I can see and feel that entrepreneurs from our region are being more stubborn, in some cases more driven. 'Do more with less' is a mentality I see in this region. This is our competitive advantage, and we need to turn it into a competitive advantage, not just talk about it. This 'do more with less' is really embedded in our company culture as well. I believe we have the talent, the right mentality. The best companies are able to raise funds and can break out from the region and become global players with the ambition, drive, and the right team.

(Photo: company press release)

simona@romania-insider.com