• ThrowMeNot has raised $550,000 in a pre-seed round, led by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mana Al Maktoum.
• Founded in 2025 by Archie Rudyuk, the UAE-based startup is tackling food waste through a near-expiry and surplus goods marketplace.
• The funding will be used to expand the team and scale delivery and fulfilment across the UAE.

Press release:

ThrowMeNot, a sustainability-focused online food marketplace, today announced the close of a $550k pre-seed round, led by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mana bin Khalifa Saeed Al Maktoum. The raised capital will accelerate team expansion and scaling delivery and fulfilment capabilities to ensure a reliable and seamless customer experience.

Founded in 2025 by Archie Rudyuk, a UAE-based entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in digital commerce, fintech partnerships, and e-commerce operations, ThrowMeNot tackles one of the region’s most pressing sustainability challenges: food waste.

“In the UAE, an estimated 3.27 million tonnes of food are wasted annually. We founded ThrowMeNot to address this problem, enabling suppliers to recover value from near-expiry inventory while providing consumers with affordable, high-quality products,” said Archie Rudyuk, co-founder of ThrowMeNot.

ThrowMeNot operates a dedicated marketplace that redistributes near-expiry and surplus products, preventing them from being discarded, offers discounts of up to 90% off retail prices, and aligns commercial incentives across the supply chain, making waste reduction profitable for suppliers and convenient for buyers.

Following the investment, the company is scaling its platform, enabling consumers across the UAE to purchase near-expiry and surplus products at substantial discounts. With over 25 suppliers listing more than 2,700 products on ThrowMeNot, from chocolates and beauty items to vitamins, including 885+ popular and well-loved brands, the platform helps suppliers reduce losses, consumers save money, and the UAE progress toward its national goal of halving food waste by 2030, as supported by the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative (ne’ma).

“ThrowMeNot’s mission aligns with the UAE’s sustainability agenda and regional efforts to reduce food waste. The platform helps suppliers recover value and provides consumers with affordable food, contributing to a more conscious and sustainable future across the MENA region,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Mana Al-Maktoum, an early investor in ThrowMeNot.

Looking ahead, ThrowMeNot will scale its platform to reduce food waste, recover value for suppliers, and provide consumers with affordable, high-quality products. The company aims to expand across the MENA region, building a broader ecosystem of sustainability-driven products, services, and initiatives that extend beyond food and promote conscious consumption across everyday categories.