“A family of four throws, on average, the equivalent of one meal a week, i.e. one minimum wage, into the trash can..” It was on the basis of this observation that Alexia Desport Richard had the idea to create the Popotte Duck, with Romain Amate.
Popotte Duck is a free app that helps streamline shopping and recipes, accompanied by a small duck-shaped electronic chef robot.
This set was designed to “respond to the fight against waste and therefore purchasing power. We had to focus on organizing daily meals and supporting the consumer before and after their experience. So, upstream, we have developed an artificial intelligence that is able to plan individual meals based on family constraints: the number of people, the foods we like or don’t consume, the time we want to go there,” explains Alexia Desport Richard.
About 20,000 users
The app then generates a shopping list and the house is the duck that takes over “performance optimization, allows you to optimize waste“. The application is already available, but the robot will not be sold until the end of the year.
“We realized that people always cook the same recipes and that following one of them on the phone is not practical. The duck’s head comes to life thanks to his smartphone, which will be recharged by the robot. The idea is that this is a product for the home. , everything is voiced, there is a scale, and the application can change the recipe during operation,” comments Alexia Desport Richard.
Also a way to avoid “In order to always eat the same thing, we keep the ingredients we like but bind them differently.”.”
The robot costs 99 euros. “Because we want to optimize purchasing power and reduce waste, we cannot charge too much for our services. The consumer pays only for the product..”
With record inflation reaching 5.2% and purchasing power in the spotlight, this instrument takes on a completely different value. “The first tests we carried out allowed us to reduce the amount of waste by an average of 10-30%.“, says Alexia Desport Richard.
It took two years of research and development from scratch to create an artificial intelligence capable of preparing and serving balanced and varied meals. The app currently has just under 20,000 users.
Popotte Duck also received the BFM Lyon award for innovative start-up at the last Lyon fair.
Retailers as financial partners
The business model of Popotte Duck is based on partnerships with major retailers. Indeed, while compiling his shopping list, the user can also tell the sign where he usually goes.
The app works like thisaccept the restrictions of the distributor you are going to. This will optimize his shopping list both in terms of quantity and purchasing power, because we can potentially raise the stock. We also track your purchase history to see what’s left in your fridge.“If the brand is a partner, the user can also accumulate loyalty points through their shopping list.
A way that brands are interested in: customer loyalty. Thus, startup funding will be “thanks to partnerships with distributors, because we make the service available to their customers. In the desire to refine, therefore it is the partners who pay us for providing this service“, analyzes Alexia Desporte Richard.
By the end of the year, Popotte Duck will also launch a new partnership with the Prosol group (Grand Frais, Fresh, Banco Fresco, Monmarché.fr).
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