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Choco: Making Food-Wasting a Thing of the Past

choco

Get all of your orders in order with Choco.

The food industry is keeping up with trends and modernizing its systems.

Are you tired of dictating your order in audio messages and checking for error deliveries? This is all changing now -there is a new kid on the food scene ready to make your life heaven.

Choco is the answer to connecting restaurants with their suppliers while at the same time optimizing the food supply chain. A pioneer in the global food industry, Choco is among the fastest-growing start-ups.

Guided by the fact that more than 30% of the food is wasted even before it reaches the final consumers, three young enthusiasts and environmentalists rolled up their sleeves and created the Choco app.

Daniel Khachab, Julian Hammer, and Rogério da Silva Yokomizo are the brains behind this revolutionizing invention, so stick around and read all about this inspiring success story.

Diverse Union

Daniel Khachab is of German-Lebanese descent and currently splits his time between Berlin and New York. Fluent in German, English, and Spanish, he also has an elementary knowledge of Arabic. An ambitious young man, Daniel has acquired his Bachelor's degree in International Business, and he’s also a Finance major from Maastricht University.

During his studies, Daniel decided to try it as an exchange student and went to spend a semester at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. He went on to round up his education with the Max Planck Society in Germany by attending a Masterclass European Particles Outreach Group.

A fan of skiing and owning a certificate for a ski instructor, Daniel started his career in 2006 by working for the Production team of the FIFA World Cup 2006. In 2007, business-restless Daniel co-founded Happee Ltd, a platform for restaurant reservations and other shopping features which didn’t turn out as Daniel had expected.

After the flop, Daniel joined the German Air Force for a year. In 2012, he started to work for Rocket Internet SE, first as a Global Venture Development Manager and then as Venture founder and CEO. This is where Daniel learned the secrets to the business and met his future partners which later led to the founding of Choco.

Julian Hammer is the second co-founder of Choco, a young man who’s fluent in both English and German. With over 12 years of working experience, Julian started his career as a Business Development Manager with Rocket Internet GmbH.

Changing several companies to gain more experience and acquire the necessary skills, his main field of work ended up being venture development. This tech entrepreneur has built startups out of San Francisco, Berlin, London, and Southeast Asia. Julian also joined Rocket Internet SE as a Global Venture Development Manager about the same time that Daniel was working there.

Rogério da Silva Yokomizo is the third co-founder who is also a tech entrepreneur and a venture development buff. He received his Associate’s degree in Technology and Informatics from Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Paolo. His working experience included 5 years spent as a Venture CTO at Rocket Internet SE before he joined the Choco venture.

Choco World

Using the experience they acquired in Rocket internet SE, where the three co-founders met, Daniel, Julian, and Rogério were looking for a way to offer one solution to several problems. Following the problems with food waste, malnutrition, global warming, and so on, the three musketeers embarked on a venture to offer practical solutions.

Researching the food supply chain which produces large amounts of waste, the young entrepreneurs realized a flaw in the way restaurants order and suppliers deliver ingredients. That is when the idea for Choco was born to digitalize the supply chain.

Choco was born in 2018 in Berlin as a startup connecting restaurant owners and food suppliers urging them to go digital. For the public to understand the benefits that Choco brings to both society and the environment, Daniel explained the exhausting process of ordering supplies for the public.

He pointed out that chefs usually order the supplies after finishing their shifts at 11 pm by leaving voice messages or sending purchase orders to all suppliers. These then need to go through the orders in the early hours of dawn to make sure they prepare everything as per the order. This is a repetitive process that is done daily and it's rather exhaustive.

To avoid any miscommunication, wrong orders due to unreadable ink, and so on, more and more members of the food industry choose to use the Choco App.

Biodiverse-Friendly Company

Although many think that the name Choco is derived from the sweetest delicacy we all enjoy tasting, this is actually not the case. Chocó is a district of Columbia, where Daniel spent some time during his student years. This most biodiverse and rich ecosystem in the world is worth every effort to save, which is why the founders of Choco find the name suitable for their company.

This young company is breaking records by attracting investments and getting attention. With a total funding amount of $163.7M, they have gone through a total of 7 funding rounds and 12 investors. Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, Atlantic Labs, and Left Lane Capital are among the 4 lead investors that saw the potential of Choco.

Partnering up with Slow Food, Zero Foodprint, and RESY, Choco is working towards a sustainable food system. Choco is not only about giving back to nature and preserving it, but it also gives back to the community by offering a helping hand when most needed.

Choco Market was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine restrictions. It’s a sub-project where temporary online marketplaces were set up. Due to restaurants being closed, the idea was for products from B2B suppliers to reach and be sold to B2C customers.

Joined Hands

It may seem just like another app, but in fact, this startup is proving to be more than that. Ignored by many when they started, they are now one of the fastest-growing startups offering solutions to not just one, but several burning issues. Working hard and wanting to make a name for the company, Choco successfully withstood the competition coming from rivaling companies like MUY, Mr. Yum, and Snackpass, among others.

Cutting down on perfectly good food ending in the trash, and at the same time simplifying the communication between restaurants and suppliers is a big and important step. Choco is definitely doing its fair share of helping reduce the whopping 1.3 gigatons of wanted food, every year!

Today, with head offices in Berlin, Germany, and rapidly approaching the number of 500 employees, Choco is quickly expanding outside the borders of Germany. Spreading like wildfire throughout Europe and the United States, Choco has managed to attract the attention of over 10,000 suppliers and more than 15,000 chefs using the app. It’s no wonder that Choco processes over 100,000 orders every month.

Food waste has always been a huge problem and kudos to these three young entrepreneurs for having the courage to speak up and do something about it.