Interview with Daniel Khachab, CEO at FoodTech Unicorn: Choco

Choco is the food industry’s No. 1 ordering platform connecting restaurants and food suppliers. Choco’s vision is to reduce food waste on a global scale by digitising the food industry towards a more sustainable future.

Our ethos is simple. Reduce ordering mistakes and eliminate waste every step of the way. We estimate that, when using the Choco app, restaurants are saving on average 1.27 kilos of food waste per week, by reducing their ordering mistakes and also saving up to two hours every week making orders, improving their efficiency in the kitchen.

Choco’s app enables suppliers to offer its customers a fully digital ordering process, replacing the ‘gut feel, phone and paper list’ system that chefs have traditionally used. All available products are shown on the interface in real time, so chefs have confidence, in a few clicks, exactly what products they are ordering and at what cost. Scribbling down the wrong products or incorrect amounts is a thing of the past, meaning no unwanted items accidentally arrive and less waste.

By helping streamline the global food supply chain, the company has created a more efficient and sustainable process that empowers restaurants and suppliers to make every possible financial and process efficiency, improving margins and strengthening the digital food chain.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
I founded the company to address the widespread issue of food waste in the global supply chain. For context, 30-40% of food produced goes to waste each year and nearly three-quarters of that waste happens in the supply chain before consumers are involved.

Waste is the third-largest driver of climate change. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest in carbon dioxide emissions on the planet.

Coming from an eCommerce background, I knew one answer to the problem was to automate how suppliers and restaurants connect with one another. Solving food supply chain inefficiencies with an app. That was how Choco was born.

Choco’s namesake is the Chocó district of Colombia – one of the most biodiverse and rich ecosystems on our planet. It’s places like Chocó that we are fighting to preserve.
 

 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Since its founding in 2018 in Berlin, the company has grown rapidly and is active in markets such as the U.S., Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Belgium and most recently the UK with a £20 million investment.

Choco is working with over 15,000 restaurateurs, as well as over 10,000 wholesale businesses worldwide. In early 2022, Choco’s valuation was boosted to $1.2 billion, making it a FoodTech Unicorn.
 

What can we hope to see from Choco in the future?

 
By building a unique, powerful, automated ecosystem, we will help move the food industry into the 21st century. We believe Choco can be the backbone of food service in the years to come and create a new standard for the global food supply chain industry.