apps promise less waste and lower prices

Lucie Basch admits it. The economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prompted students, faced with a drop in income due to a lack of jobs or seasonal jobs, to use Too Good To Go (“Too good to be thrown” in French), the application she founded in 2016, to eat more cheaply.

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These young people have come to swell the number of users in France: now 9 million people have downloaded this app which, at the end of the day, in partnership with 18,000 traders, offers to buy batches of food products at a third of their price. usual to fight against waste “. However, the year 2020 was ” difficult “, according to Mme Basch. Because, after years of growth, containment measures have slowed down activity, preventing customers from moving and changing their consumption patterns, recognizes Clément Carreau, spokesperson for Phenix, another so-called “anti-waste” app, which is remunerated by taking a commission on each lot sold.

Recent fundraising

These two start-ups owe their salvation to recent fundraising. Too Good To Go obtained 25 million euros in January from two investment funds, including Blisce, the investment structure of entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexandre Mars. Phenix, for its part, raised 15 million euros at the end of 2018, then, in February 2020, brought the Danone Manifesto Ventures fund into its capital. This operation “Allowed to cope” to the crisis due to Covid-19, explains the spokesperson for this start-up used by 1.8 million users and partner of 10,000 merchants.

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These funds must above all finance their international development. Although Too Good To Go, whose turnover reached 70 million euros in 2020, is only profitable in four of its 15 markets (France, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland), the company sets out to conquer new territories across the Atlantic. The app is now operational, among others, in Toronto, Canada, and Austin, United States.

Partnerships with manufacturers

At the end of 2021, 1,500 people will work for Too Good To Go around the world, assures Mme Basch, counting on a volume of business twice as large as in 2020. The manager hopes in particular to forge new partnerships with food manufacturers by offering them to sell their waste at the doorstep of their factories. In 2021, Too Good To Go worked with the confectioner Cémoi to sell thousands of bags of Easter chocolates in Sorbiers (Loire) and with the Miko glacier, a subsidiary of Unilever, in Paris.

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