Peekabox lets residents reserve fresh surplus items from participating restaurants, cafes, bakeries and grocery stores for same-day pickup
A UAE-born food-saving app has launched, allowing residents to buy fresh surplus food from restaurants, cafes, bakeries and grocery stores at discounts of 50 to 70 per cent.
Peekabox, founded by Dubai-raised brothers Hasan and Omair Sarwar, lets customers reserve “surprise boxes” from participating outlets and collect them in person during same-day pickup windows, usually towards the end of the trading day.
The boxes typically cost around Dh15 for grocery items and Dh30 for most other categories, including bakeries, coffee shops, sushi outlets, prepared meal providers and hotel buffets. The platform has launched with more than 1,000 stores signed across over 40 brands, according to its press pack.
The company says the food sold through the app is freshly prepared and still within its shelf life but would otherwise risk being discarded if unsold.
How it works
“All the items sold on Peekabox are freshly prepared in the morning and are well within their shelf-life. Yet we’ve often seen shelves full of these items being thrown away, which becomes a very real commercial problem for retailers. Every item discarded is lost revenue. What we are doing is driving incremental revenue on these items while giving consumers meaningful savings,” said Hasan Sarwar, who serves as CEO of Peekabox.
The app lists available boxes from outlets near the customer. Users reserve and pay through the app, then collect the box from the store during the listed pickup window. The “surprise box” model means customers do not choose individual items, allowing retailers to sell what remains unsold at the end of the day without affecting regular full-price demand.
Participating brands and partner groups include Al Maya, Union Co-op, Costa Coffee, Paul, Tim Hortons, Dunkin’, Choithrams, Cinnabon, Krispy Kreme, Peet’s Coffee, Pret A Manger and Eataly, among others. The platform says additional brands are being actively onboarded.
Hasan said the early response has been strong, with the app crossing 50,000 downloads and recording 5,000 orders within two weeks of launch. Peekabox also reached No. 1 on the App Store for seven consecutive days, he said, with Paul and Choithrams among the top-performing brands so far.
Cost of living and food waste
The launch comes as the company says households are paying more for everyday food items. Peekabox says most UAE residents spend between Dh800 and Dh1,500 a month on food.
The company is also positioning the platform as a response to food waste. Its press pack cites Ministry of Climate Change and Environment figures stating that 3.27 million tonnes of food go to landfill in the UAE every year, costing the economy an estimated $3.5 billion annually. The press pack also says 38 per cent of all food prepared daily in Dubai is wasted, rising during Ramadan.
The UAE has committed to halving food waste by 2030 under the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, Ne’ma, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.
Hasan, 25, said the idea came from seeing fresh food being thrown away despite growing pressure on household budgets.
“We kept seeing shelves full of fresh food items from our favourite restaurants being thrown away at the end of every day, and I saw this as a huge opportunity to solve a meaningful problem,” Sarwar told media. “Growing up in Dubai for over 18 years, you see firsthand the extent of food wastage, and with the increase in cost of living, I felt my brother and I could build a platform that tackles both issues at once.”
Revenue stream for retailers
COO Omair Sarwar said the company wanted to make the discount model simple for consumers.
“You see a lot of promotions in the market — ‘up to 50 per cent off’ with caps and conditions. Our approach is simple: guaranteed minimum discounts of 50% with no conditions on every order, every day.”
For retailers, the company says the platform creates an additional revenue stream from food that previously had little or no resale value. Stores list their surplus through a partner portal, while Peekabox takes a revenue share. Listings are scheduled after peak trading hours to avoid competing with regular sales.
Peekabox has raised $1.5 million in an oversubscribed seed round.
Chairman Dr Sameer Al Ansari said, “We are launching Peekabox in Dubai to address two fundamental problems, very high food wastage and the increasingly expensive cost of living. If we can play a small part in addressing both of these issues, then we have achieved success. Dubai is always at the forefront of innovative ideas, and with Peekabox we can showcase yet another homegrown UAE success story.”
