Waste, particularly food waste, has a devastating social and environmental impact. That's why Sofiouest, an investment and holding company, is helping PHENIX to revolutionize unsold food management in France and pursue its Zero Waste objective, by participating in its latest €15 million fund-raising round.
The United Nations estimates that nearly a third of the world's food production is wasted from field to plate. PHENIX, a pioneer in the circular economy and a leader in the intelligent management of unsold products and waste, works with retailers to ensure that perfectly edible products are no longer thrown away because of their appearance or because they are close to expiry. PHENIX offers retailers a credible alternative to costly landfill and incineration of their waste, and finds the best possible recycling channel for their unsold products: promotion on short-dated products, donation to charities, destockers, animal feed, recyclers.
PHENIX has revolutionized the organization of food donation in France, offering innovative technological solutions to push the limits of products, and thus reduce waste and its devastating social and environmental impact. PHENIX customers save on their waste processing costs, as well as benefiting from additional sales or a tax reduction linked to the taxation of donations in France. Thanks to a digital platform, personalized follow-up and its extensive network of partners, PHENIX aims to lead its retail, shopping center and industrial customers towards "Zero Waste", making the garbage can the exception.
PHENIX expanded rapidly throughout France, opening 21 regional branches. Today, the structure works with over 950 referenced associations (Banques Alimentaires, Restos du Cœur, Secours Populaire, ...) and 1,000 customers including the 5 largest supermarket chains in France, and is developing its presence in Spain and Portugal. Doubling its business every year since 2014, PHENIX now represents almost 5% of food aid in France, i.e. 100,000 meals redistributed and 50 tonnes of waste saved from the garbage can every day.
" Sofiouest recently affirmed its ambition to devote a significant part of its investments to "impact" companies. We are therefore delighted to be associated with PHENIX. In addition to the impressive quality of their management, PHENIX's solutions seem to us to be pioneering intelligent circular waste management, which is set to develop exponentially in all developed countries ," explains Patrice Hutin, CEO of Sofiouest.
For this reason, Sofiouest supported PHENIX in its €15 million financing round, jointly led by Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF Partners) and Bpifrance, via the Ville de Demain fund, managed by Bpifrance as part of the Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir, and Arkéa (through its We Positive Invest societal impact fund).
The capital raised will enable PHENIX to accelerate its international expansion, invest in the development of new digital services and extend its activity to the management of other waste streams.
