Every entrepreneur is looking for a big problem to solve. Lucas Infante found his inside bakeries, supermarkets and restaurants. While managing a Carrefour Express franchise in Spain, Infante came across foods fit for consumption being discarded daily because they could not find buyers in time.
It was from this indignation with the waste of food and also money, that in 2021 Food To Save was born. The startup connects consumers to food establishments with surplus products sold through so-called “surprise bags”.
The model, created during the pandemic, transformed a cost for retail into a new source of revenue and led the company to earn more than R$160 million in 2025, with expectations of exceeding R$200 million in 2026.
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According to Infante, the company never wanted to be just a discount app.
“Before being an app, we are the biggest movement against food waste in Brazil”, proudly revealed the founder and CEO of the program From Zero to Top.
Today, Food To Save is present in more than 100 cities and is already one of the most downloaded apps in Brazil.
The business logic is simple: products that are close to expiration date or that have not been sold throughout the day are gathered into bags sold at a discount to the consumer. But the great innovation came precisely from the way this product is presented.
“We always say to employees and operators: Build it as if it were for you. This is not a trash can. This is a business model that avoids waste”, says the CEO. “Would you open with your family? So, there’s an extra job. It’s not just ‘let’s scale at any price,” said Infante.
Without cannibalizing customers
The creation of the surprise bag was born out of concern from the traders themselves. An experience that mixes economy, sustainability and a touch of curiosity, as the customer only discovers the products they received when opening the packaging.
According to the founder, many partners said they already had physical spaces to liquidate products close to expiration and were afraid that a discount app would end up diverting consumers from traditional purchases.
“If you start selling the same thing on your platform that I sell, you will addict the customer to buying cheaper. You will be competing with me.”
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By hiding exactly which items will be delivered, Food To Save avoids cannibalizing the establishment’s conventional sales and facilitates the partner’s operation. For Infante, growth only makes sense because it benefits everyone involved.
“I don’t cannibalize sales. I facilitate operations. We created a win, win, win model.”
Today the company operates in hundreds of Brazilian municipalities, connecting more than 12 thousand establishments and thousands of consumers daily.
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“The establishment gains incremental revenue. Brazilians now have access to some product or food, which is not part of everyday life, with almost 70% discount. And there is also the environmental impact. After all, we [Brasil] throws R$60 billion worth of food away per year”, concludes Lucas.
To find out more details about Food to Save, see the full episode on . The program is available in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , , and
About From Zero to Top
The Do Zero ao Topo podcast is a production of InfoMoney and brings, every week, the stories of prominent women and men in the Brazilian market to tell their story, sharing the biggest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used in building the business.
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