Idea Bank — Request for Climate Startups
Farm-to-Table Restaurant Map
An app directing Dhaka diners to restaurants that source locally and sustainably.
The ask
Build a consumer-facing guide — app and web — that verifies and promotes Bangladeshi restaurants sourcing from local regenerative farms, turning ethical eating into a discovery and marketing channel for both sides.
Why now
Dhaka's mid-to-upper dining market has doubled since 2018 and a visible "local sourcing" narrative is emerging among premium restaurants. Food safety scandals (formalin in fish, pesticide residues in vegetables) have primed urban consumers to pay a premium for transparency. Instagram-driven food culture means a credible quality signal travels fast and cheaply.
Why Bangladesh
The gap between farm and fork in BD is almost entirely invisible to the urban consumer — no labelling, no traceability, no third-party signal. A map that does the verification creates a new trust layer the market currently lacks. Dhaka alone has an estimated 30,000 restaurants; even 200–300 verified listings represent a defensible starting network. The climate angle (lower food miles, regenerative inputs) aligns with the growing donor and ESG-aware expat community.
As a business
Restaurants pay a monthly listing and badge fee (৳2,000–5,000/month) for the verified "locally sourced" credential and placement in the app. Advertising placements and sponsored features add a second revenue line. Consumer-side is free to drive discovery. Margin improves as the brand becomes the default trust signal — restaurants that leave lose the badge, creating sticky retention.
Economics
Move the sliders to model your own restaurant-map business. Defaults are order-of-magnitude estimates — pressure-testing them is part of what a founder pitches us.
Model a farm-to-table restaurant directory
Clears its setup cost after ~18 months, then profit (volt) from there. Hover or tap the chart for any month.
Illustrative model — defaults are order-of-magnitude estimates from public data, not a forecast. Pressure-test every number before you build.
What ZEPH would back
This is a media-meets-SaaS play — we want a founder who understands both the Dhaka food scene and B2B sales to restaurant owners. An early partnership with one or two well-known chefs who champion local sourcing would give the brand instant credibility. At seed we'd want to see 50 paying restaurants and measurable consumer traffic before Series A.
Impact
A verified farm-to-table restaurant map creates a market signal that rewards restaurants sourcing from regenerative local farms and penalises greenwashing — driving a measurable shift in procurement patterns across Dhaka's dining sector. Each verified restaurant represents roughly 500–2,000 kg of local produce purchased per month that would otherwise come through anonymous intermediaries with no sustainability signal. At 150 verified listings the platform redirects an estimated US$1.5 million per year of food spending toward short-supply-chain regenerative sources, reducing transport emissions and imported agrochemical use simultaneously.
Also being built elsewhere
Companies proving the model in other markets.
Local food map that verifies and badges true farm-to-table restaurants; 'stamp of approval' model directly applicable to the Bangladesh concept.
Connects chefs directly to farmers and vintners via a marketplace app, shortening the farm-to-restaurant supply chain — proves B2B SaaS model for food-system transparency.
More Regenerative Agriculture ideas
Other climate businesses we want built.