From investment banking to fighting food waste: Meet the brothers behind Dubai startup Peekabox

Peekabox, a Dubai-based food‑tech startup founded by British brothers Hasan Sarwar (25) and Omair Sarwar (24), has recorded more than 50,000 downloads, reached the top spot in the App Store’s food category within days of launch and is helping residents rescue surplus food from some of the UAE’s best‑known outlets. The app, which offers discounted “surprise boxes” of unsold fresh food at 50–70% off, went live after more than a year of groundwork and launched with agreements covering nearly 1,000 stores and an initial rollout of around 250 locations across the UAE.

“We’ve grown up in Dubai, we lived here for about 20 years. We then went back to London for university and then returned to Dubai to start our careers in investment banking. But we wanted to do something a bit more meaningful,” Hasan said.

How the app works

• Users browse listings of participating restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores offering discounted surprise boxes; exact contents remain a surprise but are typically fresh items that would otherwise remain unsold.
• Each listing shows the outlet, the collection window and an indication of expected items; customers reserve and pay through the app and collect during the designated pickup time.
• Boxes are sold at steep discounts — generally 50–70% — giving brands incremental revenue, customers affordable meals and the platform a role in reducing food waste: “It became a win‑win,” Hasan said.

The Sarwar brothers say the platform’s performance is the result of more than a year of persuading brands to join before a single download. “It takes a lot of groundwork because we wanted customers to open the app and see all their favourite brands on day one,” Hasan said, describing outreach from LinkedIn messages and cold calls to direct phone pitches. By launch, Peekabox had secured agreements with nearly 1,000 stores and deployed in roughly 250 locations. Despite the scale, the company runs with a lean team of fewer than 10 people, including the two founders, a small operations team, a business development manager and an advisory board.

Early traction and context

• Downloads: more than 50,000 within weeks of launch.
• App Store: reached the top spot in the food category days after release.
• Partner network: near 1,000 store agreements, initial rollout across ~250 UAE locations.
• Operational note: almost all surprise boxes have been selling out daily; founders said they are “obsessing over the customer experience.”

Peekabox is incorporated through the DIFC Innovation Hub, which the founders credit with helping accelerate access to support and introductions. The startup’s mission also aligns with national priorities: the UAE has committed to halving food loss and waste by 2030 and backs initiatives such as Ne’ma, the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative. The UAE Food Bank — a complementary actor in the space — has, since 2017, distributed more than 96 million meals and diverted thousands of tonnes of food from landfills.

Looking ahead, the brothers say their immediate priorities are keeping pace with demand, expanding the partner network and refining the customer experience. “Once we realised there was a genuine commercial opportunity and the app was making a meaningful impact, we knew we had to go all in,” Hasan said, as Peekabox prepares for further growth across the UAE.