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Stokelp: French Startup’s B2B Solution to Food Waste

Attention to food waste is growing, but it is not just households that contribute to this issue. In the EU, almost half of it is generated upwards in the food supply chain, Eurostat estimates show.

Stokelp: A Solution to Supply Chain Food Waste

That’s the step where French startup Stokelp comes in, with a B2B marketplace enabling the purchase and resale of surplus food raw materials, whether that’s meat, fruit, vegetables, dairy, or ingredients such as spices or flour.

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Using Stokelp’s platform, food industry manufacturers can source what they need from more than 3,000 members. Both parties are then free to negotiate purchase terms, but the startup helps secure the transaction. “From administrative management to the delivery of your materials, Stokelp supports you throughout the duration of your purchases,” it promises.

“The idea was born from noticing a lack of solutions in my former job as a raw materials buyer,” CEO Tanguy de Cottignies said. Conversely, it helps create value out of overstock. But the impact goes beyond buyers and sellers: Less food waste also means less environmental impact.

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The Environmental Impact of Reducing Food Waste

“Today in Europe, 1.6 million tons of food raw materials are destroyed, resulting in more than 4 million tons of CO2 being unnecessarily emitted into the air and soil,” according to the startup, which was founded in 2021 and is one of some 400 companies incubated by Agoranov.

Instead of producing more, Stokelp promotes responsible sourcing of raw materials, a win-win for both sides of the market. The proposal is resonating: “In 2023, in our second year of existence, we achieved 2.5 million euros in revenue, and we project 10 million euros for 2024,” its CEO said.

While word of mouth and its presence in food industry federations helped the company grow into its current position, it won’t hurt either that it raised €3 million in funding last year from investors including OneRagtime, AFI Ventures, Rothschild & Co and Better Angle.

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Stokelp’s European Ambitions and Competitive Advantage

This helped the company grow its team to 17 people split between Paris and Barcelona, which also reflects its European ambitions. This may require outpacing its German competitor, Leroma, but the French startup is confident. “Our strength lies in our speed of execution and our ability to address all types of food raw materials,” de Cottignies said.

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Participating in SIAL Startup Invest, the CEO added, will also help the team catch up with existing clients while meeting new European food industry manufacturers. This will be another step towards its mission to reduce this European food waste by 50% upstream in the value chain by 2025.

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Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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