Thailand cornerstone market for Yindii

As Southeast Asia confronts growing food waste and rising living costs, Yindii, Asia's No.1 food surplus marketplace, closed 2025 with strong growth and measurable impact across the region.

- BOONSONG LIPIMAS

Mr Batard-Dupré holds up a Yindii bag.

Founded in 2020 by Louis-Alban Batard-Dupré and Mahima Rajangam Natarajan, Yindii connects restaurants, bakeries, grocers and hotels with consumers who collect “surprise bags” of unsold food at discounts of 50-80%, transforming potential waste into affordable meals.

In 2025, the Yindii community rescued more than half a million meals from going to waste, equivalent to saving nearly one meal every minute.

This achievement helped offset more than 1.375 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, comparable to driving a petrol-powered car roughly 11 million kilometres, or making around 277 trips around the world.

The emissions reduction is equivalent to burning roughly 580,000 litres of petrol or operating 575 one-way passenger flights from Paris to New York, noted the company.