Sotira

Sotira operates a software platform for managing surplus inventory. Suppliers — retailers, distributors, brands, manufacturers and instant commerce companies — upload an inventory list via spreadsheet or connect a warehouse management system, and Sotira's matching software pairs the goods either with a network of verified brick-and-mortar buyers in the secondary/liquidation market or with qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofits. The company handles the surrounding reverse-logistics work: buyer or nonprofit matching, pickup and logistics coordination, purchase orders, bills of lading, invoices, credit checks, escrow payments, compliance paperwork, distribution restrictions, donation documentation and impact reporting. Suppliers can set restrictions by geography, resale, beneficiary population and product type to protect brand and existing accounts.

The platform's stated supplier criteria are finished goods in case packaging or with tags attached, a manifest for each load, a minimum of half a truckload, and short-dated stock with at least two weeks of remaining dating. Categories served are ambient (non-refrigerated) food and beverage, makeup and cosmetics, and health and wellness, with additional categories offered in beta on request; packaging, raw materials, unfinished product, relabeling and MSRP-priced wholesale are explicitly out of scope. Sotira states suppliers can recover up to 50% of costs, that most inventory moves within two to five days, and that CPG brands typically free up five figures of working capital per transaction. The company has said it intends to expand into more complex categories such as apparel and footwear and, over time, internationally.

Alongside the resale channel, Sotira's donation product routes excess, obsolete and short-dated inventory to verified nonprofits, matching on product type, location, quantity, expiration dates and distribution requirements, and supplying the documentation needed for charitable tax deductions, audit requirements and sustainability reporting.

Founding story

Co-founders Amrita Bhasin (CEO) and Gary Kwong (CTO) met at the University of California, Berkeley and bonded over shared interests in e-commerce, logistics, technology and business. Both had been running their own companies selling new and previously owned products, and they ran a liquidation business together to learn how the space operated before launching Sotira. They concluded that monetizing overstock was a large, manual market opportunity — customers were working on pen and paper and unfamiliar with AI — and built Sotira to automate it while reducing landfill waste. The company is named after Sotira, a female physician and mathematician in ancient Greece.

Business model

Two-sided marketplace and workflow software sitting between inventory holders and secondary-market buyers or nonprofit recipients, with Sotira coordinating logistics, payment and compliance rather than taking title in a traditional liquidator model. A parallel donation service monetizes the same supplier relationship through tax-deduction and impact documentation.

Sotira charges a commission or percentage of revenue on transactions completed through the platform, and also charges a monthly access fee.

Traction

Sotira states it works with suppliers across the United States, including instant commerce, grocery delivery and CPG brands, and describes a network of more than 2,000 verified buyers making thousands of transactions per month, with a strong presence in the Midwest and Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and warehousing hubs such as Edison, NJ). It reports offloading millions of pounds of surplus grocery, health and wellness and cosmetics goods. Recognition includes first place in startup pitch competitions at Shoptalk and the 2025 Reverse Logistics Association Conference, second place at the 2023 AWS Startup Competition, and grants from the State of California (Dream Fund), the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley, the NEAR Foundation and 1517 Fund.

Latest developments

The company's site now leads with a donation product for excess, short-dated and obsolete inventory matched to verified 501(c)(3) nonprofits, including onboarding paths for donors and nonprofits alongside suppliers and buyers, and documentation supporting tax deductions and impact reporting. In 2025 Sotira reported first-place finishes at Shoptalk and the Reverse Logistics Association conference, and stated plans to move into apparel and footwear and to grow internationally.