Good food should not
end up in a bin.

Where this started

Walk past a bakery in Bukhari Commercial just before it shuts. Look at the counter. There are patties, cakes and bread that were made this morning and will be in the bin by the time the shutters come down. The same thing happens at biryani counters, cafes and dessert shops across the city, every single night.

It is nobody's fault. A shop cannot know exactly how many people will walk in. Order too little and you turn customers away, order too much and you eat the loss. So most shops overshoot slightly, and the difference gets thrown out.

What we do about it

Shops list whatever they have left as a dabba, a surprise box sold at a large discount. You see the shop, the pickup window and the price, then reserve in a couple of taps. You collect at closing and pay cash, or pay a small fee and have it delivered.

The shop turns a loss into some revenue. You get a proper meal for a fraction of what it normally costs. And food that was heading for the bin gets eaten instead. Nobody has to be charitable for it to work, which is exactly why we think it will.

Why the name

Aakhri dabba means the last box. It is the one still sitting on the counter when the shutters are about to come down, and it is the one you want to catch before somebody else does. We kept the name in Urdu because that is how people here would actually say it.

And because you never quite know what is inside: har dabba, ek surprise.

Built for Karachi

Most apps like this are built for cities that go quiet at nine in the evening. Karachi does not. Bakeries run past midnight and some kitchens are open until five in the morning, so our pickup windows are built around late nights rather than early ones.

Paying by card in advance does not suit most people here either, so cash on pickup is the default and will stay an option even after wallets are added. Everything is designed around how the city actually eats.

Where we are right now

We are early. The app is built, the brand is done, and we are talking to our first shops in DHA, Clifton and the surrounding areas. Nothing is live yet, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.