By Wayne Heilman, The Gazette
A Colorado Springs startup hopes to dramatically reduce the surplus food grocery stores, distributors and restaurants buy and then throw away.
Colorado Springs-based FoodMaven Corp. plans to make a profit and help food businesses by creating an online marketplace where grocery stores and distributors can sell and deliver surplus food to restaurants, institutional kitchens and commercial food preparation businesses at a steep discount.
The company started the marketplace in July in Colorado Springs, expanded late last year into the Denver area and now employs 22 people with plans to hire 50 more this summer as it expands to restaurants in Denver. Within five years, FoodMaven plans to operate in up to 100 cities nationwide with plans to grow to $1 billion in revenue and 8,000 employees.
“We want to do to the food industry what Uber did to the taxi industry,” said Patrick Bultema, a Colorado entrepreneur and FoodMaven’s co-founder and CEO.
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