Rising cost, lack of accessibility, inefficient distribution, and a very weak supply chain have made the Philippines the country with the most severely food-insecure people in Southeast Asia. The United Nation’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report released in 2024 says that 50.9 million Filipinos could not consistently obtain food in 2022. As of 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the Philippines reported that 75.2 million Filipinos could not afford a healthy diet. Helping to close these hunger gaps and providing a future for many of these marginalized is SariSuki, one of the largest online groceries in the Philippines which launched only two years ago.

Funded by the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture Fund (ACTIVE Fund), which in turn is managed by the largest venture capital firm in Southeast Asia, Kickstart Ventures, SariSuki’s approach cuts off the middlemen who tend to increase the food prices along with their profit margin. It then creates a direct line from the primary producers of meat, crops, and produce to consumers. As a result, the average wage earner buys quality fresh food that is cheaper than those in the wet market.

As to the traditionally daunting problem of reaching out to both sellers and markets in an archipelago with a geographically dispersed layout, SariSuki creates a bridge by utilizing both online social commerce and community building, becoming the first online grocer to do so. This strategy has propelled the company to gain (to date) 120,000 monthly active buyers and close to 500 hotels, restaurants, and catering (HORECA) clients.

Sowing the seeds of SariSuki

In hindsight, it was probably apt that the birth of this food security pioneer began during the pandemic, when food was the people’s all-encompassing priority. One of its founders, Kate Legaspi-Cu, started selling fruits and vegetables to her community to survive. She recalls one turning point when she was able to buy fresh produce in bulk from farmers and offer discounts by consolidating orders in their area. She shares that, “the rise of sellers like me and the growth of community selling were unstoppable trends that could lead to a business opportunity that could benefit many Filipinos in search of quality and affordable food.”

Kate found an ally and business partner in her husband, Brian Cu, the former head of app Grab Philippines who was instrumental to the explosion of online transport and food delivery in the country. The involvement of other partners Bam Mejia, Philippe Lorenzo, and Angelo Lee soon led to the founding of SariSuki.

Brian Cu, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sarisuki, names the company’s crucial first three marching orders in its phase one: improve the customers’ accessibility to fresh food; minimise the supply chain’s inefficiencies; and enhance SariSuki’s backend integration with fresh produce. The goal was simple but vital: make sure the food-challenged Filipinos get their food when they need them, and not long after they had spoiled, which was a sad reality to many.

Cultivating partnerships for amplified impact

According to Kickstart AVP for Portfolio Operations Bit Santos, the food security and access that SariSuki was addressing were among their top issues that they too want to resolve. Santos said, “We are always on the lookout for disruptive, innovative startups who can collaborate with companies in our network in addressing resource scarcity and distribution through technology. SariSuki fell squarely into this niche, and we’ve been proud to be a key investor since 2022.”

The collaboration between the Ayala group’s listed energy platform, ACEN, and SariSuki started during Kickstart’s anniversary party. ACEN was looking for producers to conduct small-scale agricultural activities on the unused land of its project sites to help the surrounding communities. “One significant hurdle we identified was the remoteness of these locations, which complicated and increased the cost of connecting to supply chains,” Irene Maranan, ACEN Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Communication and Sustainability, shares.

Seeing a budding synergy between ACEN and SariSuki, Kickstart led an introduction between the two companies and forged a partnership. SariSuki’s mission at the ACEN sites would be twofold: work with local farmers in planting six to eight different types of crops in pilot projects and be the route-to-market for these farmers and their crops. By introducing modern farming practices and implementing efficient logistics lanes, it aims to develop an agro-circular economy.

The capacity-building of the farmers and other agro-workers was crucial to achieving the partnership goals. To date, they have attended and completed at least four training modules that taught them entrepreneurship, financial literacy, sales and marketing, and advanced farming techniques. Nine sessions have been conducted with an average of 20 participants per session. Each session was well-received by attendees, garnering an average rating of 5/5 or “outstanding.”

SariSuki’s involvement in the ACEN sites has also maximized the 6,000-square-metre farm plot within its 81 MW North Luzon Renewables wind farm in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, and built an infrastructure consisting of a drip irrigation system, a seed nursery, and pipe molds. To date, the yields include more than 300 kg of tomato natives and over 1,500 Japanese cucumbers per harvest, which are well above standard.

“Through this partnership, we hope to promote responsible land use while providing holistic support to our local farmers through infrastructure, modern farming tools, and training. With what we’ve achieved so far, we are proud to have witnessed our initiatives to address gaps in food security come into fruition,” Irene quips.

Right play, right partner, right time

As their company grows and expands, the SariSuki leadership realizes that they must be discerning in selecting the many problems of food insecurity that they would wish to address first. They realize that they cannot spread themselves too thin because of their limited resources and manpower. Mejia, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Sarisuki, shares, “Any initiative we choose must fulfill three conditions: direct bottom-line impact, rapid scalability, and whether SariSuki’s available resources are suitable for the endeavor.”

Partnerships such as the one with ACEN have enabled SariSuki to achieve more affordable pricing for the food, increased sustainability, and the empowerment of local communities.  Mejia believes that once SariSuki’s efforts are fully mobilized, they will be able to help the farmers quadruple their output. At the same time, he admits that therein lies another challenge, which startups usually face: agritech initiatives such as the ones they have are fairly capital intensive.

Partnerships and networking can be keys to solving it. Mejia says that working with Kickstart gives them an advantage to “work together on mutually beneficial opportunities. Their deep funding pools and substantial assets support startups and help them scale, empowering us to be more agile and innovative to deliver disruptive solutions to longstanding problems.”

#FoodSecurity #Agritech #Sustainability #SocialCommerce #Philippines