Anti-waste app Phenix comes to Belgium

Phenix, the direct competitor of the Danish Too Good to Go, is coming to Belgium. The French company is starting in Brussels but gradually wants to cover the rest of the country as well.

“Sufficient potential”

The person responsible for the Belgian expansion is Amaury Le Mintier: he sees space in the market for two players. “The potential in Belgium is 30,000 stores (retail and hospitality), of which around 4,000 are currently covered by our competitor. There is clearly still room,” he told Trends-Tendances. Since February, Le Mintier has been working with his team of seven to launch the application in our country.

Phenix was founded in 2014 by Baptiste Corval and Jean Moreau. The company currently has nearly two million users and 10,000 partners in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. To accelerate its international expansion, the company raised 15 million euros from various funds in 2018. More recently, food giant Danone also stepped into the startup’s capital through investment vehicle Danone Manifesto Venture.

The app aims to reduce food waste by allowing citizens to buy unsold food leftovers from traders at a reduced price. The platform already has 200 Belgian partners, including branches of Carrefour Express, Proxy Delhaize and Delitraiteur. Of course, bakeries, butchers, caterers and restaurants are also already affiliated. Phenix wants to have at least a thousand Belgian partners by the end of this year: initially, the app will focus on Brussels. “The strength of an app like ours is the density of the offer,” Le Mintier explains. But the long-term goal is to cover the whole country.