“To fight against waste and help purchasing power, we focus on the organization of daily meals” (Popotte Duck)

“A family of four throws on average the equivalent of one meal per week, i.e. one minimum wage in the trash.” It was on the basis of this observation that Alexia Desporte Richard had the idea of ​​creating Popotte Duck, with Romain Amate.

Popotte Duck is a free application that helps to optimize shopping and recipes, accompanied by a small electronic kitchen clerk robot in the shape of a duck.

This set was designed “to respond to anti-waste and therefore purchasing power. We had to focus on the organization of daily meals and support the consumer before and after his experience. So, upstream, we have developed an artificial intelligence that is able to plan tailor-made meals based on the constraints of the household: number of people, favorite products or products that we do not consume, the time we wants to go there”, explains Alexia Desporte Richard.

Around 20,000 users

The application then generates a shopping list and the house is the duck that takes over in “optimizing the execution, it allows to optimize the waste“. The application is already available, but the robot will not be marketed until the end of the year.

“We realized that people always make the same recipes and that it’s not practical to follow one on your phone. The duck’s head comes to life thanks to his smartphone, which will be recharged by the robot. The idea is that it is a household product, everything is vocal, there is a scale and the application can change the recipe while it is running”, comments Alexia Desporte Richard.

Also a way to avoid “to always eat the same thing, we keep the ingredients we like, but we associate them differently.”

The robot costs 99 euros. “As we want to optimize purchasing power and waste, we could not charge too much for our service. The consumer only pays for the product.”

In a context where record inflation has reached 5.2% and where purchasing power is at the center of concerns, this tool takes on a completely different value. “The first tests we did, we reduced waste on average between 10% and 30%“, says Alexia Desporte Richard.

Starting from nothing to make this artificial intelligence which is able to cook and offer balanced and varied meals, it took two years of research and development. The application now has just under 20,000 users.

Popotte Duck also won the BFM Lyon prize for innovative start-up at the last Lyon Fair.

Retailers as financial partners

Popotte Duck’s business model is based on partnerships with major retailers. Indeed, when making his shopping list, the user can also inform the sign where he usually goes.

The app goes like this”take the constraints of the distributor to whom you are going. This will allow both to optimize its shopping list in quantity and in purchasing power because we will be able to potentially raise promotions. We also trace the purchase history to find out what’s left in your fridge.“If the brand is a partner, the user can also accumulate loyalty points thanks to his shopping list.

A way of operating that arouses interest among brands: customer loyalty. The financing of the startup will therefore come “thanks to partnerships with distributors, because we make a service available to their customers. In a desire to finalize, so it is the partners who pay us for the provision of this service“, dismantles 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).

Find the full interview here.

As a reminder, the group The gallery and BFM Lyon have come together since the start of the new school year to offer you, through the program Lyon Business (every Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.), an interview with a decision-maker in the Lyon economy at the heart of the news.

An opportunity to decipher together the challenges of issues and trends in the local economy, led by Elodie Poyade for BFM Lyon and Marie Lyan for the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes office of the newspaper La Tribune.

A program to be found live and in replay on the BFM Lyon channelavailable on TNT channel 30 and on channels 479 (SFR box), 360 (Orange), 315 (Bouygues) and 915 (Free), as well as on the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes office of La Tribune.