Kigüi

Our solution addresses the significant issue of food waste, particularly within supermarkets, which results in substantial financial losses and contributes to global emissions. Supermarkets lack detailed inventory information on products nearing expiration, leading to an inability to take large-scale, preventative actions. This gap in inventory management results in the discarding of perfectly edible food, with the potential to feed millions, and causes an estimated $103 billion in losses annually. 

The scale of this problem is not confined to local communities but extends globally, affecting millions of people and contributing to about 10% of global emissions. Our approach focuses on integrating advanced inventory management technologies to provide real-time data on product expiration, enabling supermarkets to reduce waste through timely promotions or donations. By tackling the root cause—lack of inventory visibility—we aim to make a substantial impact on reducing food waste, saving resources, and decreasing emissions on a global scale.

Our team brings together expertise in retail, technology, and operations, with a shared commitment to sustainability and innovative problem-solving. Through our platform, we offer a solution that not only benefits the environment but also supports supermarkets in enhancing efficiency and profitability. As we expand our impact, we continue to measure and report on our contributions to reducing CO2 and water footprint, aligning with our mission to create a more sustainable and less wasteful food supply chain.

Kigüi is an innovative platform designed to address the critical issue of food waste in supermarkets by incentivizing consumers to purchase products nearing their expiration dates. Through a straightforward cashback system, Kigüi encourages sustainable shopping habits, offering a 40% cashback on items close to expiration. This initiative not only helps in reducing food waste but also enables consumers to save money on their grocery bills.

How It Works:

1. App Download and Discovery: Consumers begin by downloading the Kigüi app, a central hub that lists eligible products and maps out participating supermarkets. 

2. Identifying Eligible Products: In participating supermarkets, products nearing expiration are clearly tagged with QR codes on the shelf. This clear marking ensures shoppers can easily find and select items they wish to purchase under the Kigüi cashback scheme.

3. Purchasing and Earning Cashback: Shoppers buy these selected products as they would any regular item. The unique aspect comes after the purchase when they can claim a 40% cashback. To do this, customers simply scan their shopping receipt and the product’s shelf life using the Kigüi app.

The process is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, requiring minimal effort from the consumer to benefit from significant savings.

No Integration with systems or hardware:

This choice of technology ensures that the process is accessible to anyone with a smartphone, making it widely applicable without the need for special equipment or complicated setups. The platform's back-end operates by IA that manage the cashback process, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in rewarding users.

Impact and Benefits:

By focusing on products with imminent expiration dates, Kigüi targets a significant source of food waste, turning potential losses into savings for consumers and additional sales for retailers. The cashback incentive serves as a powerful motivator, altering consumer purchasing habits towards more sustainable choices without compromising on their budget. For supermarkets and CPG brands, Kigüi offers an innovative solution to manage inventory more effectively, reducing waste and enhancing their sustainability profile.

Kigüi stands as a transformative platform at the intersection of sustainability, financial savings, and community support. Designed for individuals who frequent physical supermarkets and seek to optimize their budget, particularly those from the mid to lower income brackets, Kigüi offers a compelling 40% cashback on products nearing expiration. This incentive not only aids in reducing food waste but also significantly benefits consumers looking for savings in their grocery shopping.

How Kigüi Serves and Impacts Its Users:

1. Financial Relief: By focusing on consumers who are most sensitive to price fluctuations and economic pressures, Kigüi provides substantial savings. This relief is particularly crucial for families and individuals striving to manage their expenses wisely, ensuring that their budget can cover more needs and perhaps even wants. The 40% cashback on near-expiry products translates into direct financial savings, making essential groceries more affordable.

2. Promoting Environmental Responsibility: Beyond the immediate economic benefits, Kigüi engages its users in a larger environmental cause. By opting for items that are close to their sell-by date, consumers actively contribute to reducing food waste—a major issue that exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions and the inefficient use of resources. Kigüi educates and empowers its users, fostering a community that values sustainability and understands the impact of their shopping choices.

3. Enhancing Community Well-being: An innovative aspect of Kigüi's model is its approach to unsold items eligible for cashback. If these products are not purchased by the end of their shelf life, Kigüi facilitates the donation of these goods to food banks. This mechanism not only ensures that no food goes to waste but also supports food security efforts within the community. Food banks receive timely information on available products and can distribute these essential items to those in need, thereby strengthening the support system for vulnerable populations.

Kigüi's approach embodies a holistic solution to food waste, financial strain, and community needs. It leverages technology to make sustainable shopping accessible and rewarding, ensuring that consumers can easily participate in a system that benefits them, the environment, and society. The platform's integration with food banks exemplifies a commitment to not just preventing waste but also addressing food insecurity, making Kigüi a beacon of social innovation.

Our team's unique position to deliver the Kigüi solution stems not just from our professional experiences but deeply from our personal connections and commitments to the communities we aim to serve. The inception of Kigüi can be traced back to a blend of personal upbringing and professional insights, particularly those of our Team Lead, whose roots in farming underscore a profound understanding of the value of food production and the detrimental impacts of food waste.

Personal Connection to Agriculture:
Growing up on a farm that produces rice and meat, our Team Lead was immersed in the realities of food production from an early age. This upbringing instilled a deep appreciation for the effort and resources that go into producing food, alongside a firsthand understanding of the pain points within the supply chain, especially concerning waste. This personal background is not just a story but a foundational perspective that guides our mission and approach, ensuring that our solution is grounded in the realities of food production and consumption.

Professional Insights and Impact Focus:
The journey continued through professional corridors, with eight years spent navigating the complexities of the supply chain, witnessing the extent of food waste, and identifying the gaps in existing systems. This experience was complemented by academic pursuits, where the encounter with a co-founder during an MBA program focused on impact businesses further solidified our commitment. Our thesis project, which evolved into Kigüi, was not just an academic exercise but a reflection of our shared vision to address food waste through impactful solutions.

Community Engagement and Representation:
Our team's design and implementation strategies for Kigüi are deeply influenced by our connection to and representation of the communities we serve. With team members living in Mexico, directly engaged with local communities through food banks or social work, we ensure that our solution is not developed in isolation but in conversation with those it aims to benefit. This proximity allows us to gather insights, feedback, and ideas directly from the community, ensuring our solution aligns with their needs and aspirations.

Driven by Passion and Community Input:
Our passion for solving the problem of food waste is matched by our commitment to engaging with the communities affected by it. The design and implementation of Kigüi are continuously informed by the communities' input, ensuring that our solution remains relevant, effective, and aligned with their needs. This ongoing dialogue helps us refine our approach, making certain that Kigüi is not only a reflection of our team's vision but also of the community's aspirations and challenges.

We have large clients in our portfolio, have raised $900,000 from angel investors and venture capitalists, and operate in Argentina and Mexico.

• Total active Clients: 8 CPGs (Bimbo, Sigma Alimentos, Danone, Adecoagro, Nestle, Dulcor, Ilolay, Qualtia, Queseria Dos Lagunas) 3 retailers DIA%, Oxxo, Changomas (ex-Walmart)
• Total brand portfolio: 30
• Monthly Active Users 5,500 (user with correct orders)
• GMV: $70,000 ARR
• 255,000 products saved last year
• Reduce 412,000 Kg of CO2 foodprint

We are applying to Solve because we recognize the transformative potential of your network in scaling innovative solutions like ours in climatech. At Kigüi, we've developed a platform that partnering with retailers, turning an environmental burden into sustainable consumer action. Our platform leverages cashback incentives to encourage the purchase of products close to expiration, thus reducing waste and the associated methane, CO2, and water footprint.

However, as we aim to scale our solution into the U.S. market, we face several barriers where Solve's expertise could be instrumental:

1. Commercial: As we expand, seamless partnerships with diverse retail across international markets is crucial. Solve’s access to global tech expertise could guide our adaptation processes.
2. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Each market has its regulations concerning food safety and waste management. Guidance from Solve’s legal experts can ensure compliance and smooth our market entries.
3. Market Access and Strategic Partnerships: Entering a new market like the U.S. requires robust local networks. Solve’s connection with climate-focused investors and retailers could help us establish the necessary partnerships to gain market foothold.

While funding is essential, our primary goal in applying to Solve is to tap into its rich ecosystem of partners, mentors, and experts who can help us navigate these challenges. We believe that with Solve’s support, Kigüi can not only expand its impact significantly but also contribute to the broader ecosystem by sharing our learnings and solutions with other innovators within the network.

Kigüi offers an innovative solution to supermarket food waste by providing real-time data on products nearing expiration. Traditionally, supermarkets lack effective traceability for unpacked and shelved products, leading to significant waste. Our platform enhances traceability and engages consumers by incentivizing them to purchase items close to expiration, similar to movements against single-use plastic bags.

This shift not only addresses the root issue of waste but also catalyzes broader industry change, setting new standards for operational efficiency and environmental responsibility. It prompts other retail players to adopt similar sustainable practices, potentially transforming how the retail sector manages perishable inventory and reducing both costs and environmental impacts.

By driving the adoption of these practices across the supply chain, Kigüi influences not just supermarkets but also producers and consumers, promoting industry-wide sustainability. Our technology doesn't just improve supermarket efficiency; it serves as a catalyst for widespread change, fostering a market where consumers actively participate in waste reduction. This leads to a more sustainable future in retail and consumer behavior, significantly altering the landscape through enhanced consumer awareness and engagement.

Theory of Change for Kigüi:

- Activities: Our platform does partners with supermarket to provide real-time data on products nearing expiration. We employ dynamic pricing strategies, reducing prices as products approach their expiry dates to incentivize purchases.
- Immediate Outputs: The immediate result is increased sales of products that are close to expiration. Supermarkets see a reduction in surplus stock due to perishables selling faster, thanks to dynamic pricing.
- Long-Term Outcomes: The long-term impact includes a significant reduction in food waste. Studies, such as those conducted by leading environmental research groups, have shown that dynamic pricing can reduce food waste in retail settings by up to 25%.
- Evidence Base: Our claims are supported by existing research on dynamic pricing and its effects on consumer behavior and waste reduction. For example, a study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that dynamic pricing strategies lead to more sustainable consumer purchasing patterns and can substantially decrease the amount of food discarded by supermarkets.

By applying these strategies, Kigüi not only helps supermarkets manage inventory more efficiently but also contributes to broader environmental sustainability by reducing the waste that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and landfill use.

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Our impact goals at Kigüi are directly aligned with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically focusing on reducing food waste and promoting sustainable consumption practices, thereby contributing to the end of poverty, innovation in industry and infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities. Here are our specific impact goals and the indicators we use to measure our progress:

SDG 1: End of poverty - Increasing economic returns to the persons saving in products indirectly aids in poverty reduction. Indicator: Amount of economic saving for users

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure - We innovate retail processes through technological integration, enhancing data management for expiry tracking. Indicator: Number of retail partners using our integrated technology.

SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities - Our solution contributes to more sustainable urban consumption patterns by reducing food waste. Indicator: Tonnes of food waste reduced; CO2 and water footprint savings reported quarterly.

Our core technology at Kigüi leverages AI-driven, providing real-time data on product expiry. This platform employs predictive analytics to forecast inventory that is nearing expiration, enabling targeted consumer promotions such as cashback offers to enhance purchase rates of these items. Additionally, our system generates detailed reports on saved food quantities and the resulting reduction in CO2 and water footprints, making tangible contributions to sustainability efforts. This solution not only modernizes the retail food industry’s approach to waste but also aligns with traditional values of resource conservation and efficiency.

We work 6 people full-time and 4 part-time

We started in 2020 when study an MBA, and lauch the first solution in March 2021

At Kigüi, we prioritize diversity by initially focusing our recruitment efforts on women, broadening the search to include men only if specific expertise is not found. This approach ensures a diverse and balanced team. Our leadership includes strong female representation, and we actively work to minimize barriers and create equitable opportunities for all staff. We foster an inclusive environment where every member feels valued and respected. Actions taken include diversity training for all employees and implementing policies that promote work-life balance, catering to the varied needs of our diverse team, aligning with MIT Solve’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our business model at Kigüi combines several revenue streams: we charge a 10% take rate on transactions, provide cashback incentives for consumers, and offer a SaaS platform to CPG companies for $1,000 per month. This structure not only incentivizes purchases of near-expiration products, reducing food waste, but also generates shared revenue with our retail partners, enhancing our collaborative impact on sustainability.

Our plan for achieving financial sustainability at Kigüi involves a multi-faceted revenue strategy. We generate income through a combination of service fees, software subscriptions, and partnership revenue shares:

1. Service Fees: We charge a 10% take rate on every transaction facilitated through our platform.
2. Software Subscriptions: We offer a SaaS platform to CPG companies and retailers for $1,000 per month, which helps manage inventory and reduce waste.
3. Partnership Revenue Shares: We have agreements with retailers who share a portion of the revenue generated from increased sales of near-expiration products.

Evidence of our successful funding strategy includes:
- Capital Raised: We have successfully raised $900,000 in total funding.
- Support from Notable Entities: We've received backing from organizations such as BID LAB and Amazon Impact Funds, which underscores the credibility and potential of our solution.

The planned U.S. expansion is aimed at entering a larger market, thereby significantly increasing our revenue potential and setting the stage for a possible exit by selling to a public company in the retail space. This strategy not only aims for short-term growth but also ensures long-term financial sustainability by aligning with major market players.