Bibak is building the software stack to manage reusable food containers at scale

French start-up Bibak (formerly known as La Consigne GreenGo) has raised $6.4 million (€6 million) in a funding round that combines equity and debt. The company aims to eliminate single-use plastic food packaging and replace it with reusable packaging.

Founders Future, MAIF Impact, Seed One, Notus Technologies’ Blue Ocean SWEN Capital Partners fund, and several business angels are participating in the startup’s funding round. The startup completed this round in November 2022.

The fact that Bibak is a French company is a competitive advantage as regulations have recently changed. From January 1, 2023, restaurants must use reusable food containers for people who eat there.

“It changes the scope of the reuse business and the industry,” co-founder and CEO Yasmine Dahmane told me.

And yet Bibak has been around for quite some time. The startup started in 2018 with French corporate catering service providers such as Sodexo, Compass and Elior. Now the company also focuses on the event industry and fast food chains such as Burger King.

But Bibak does not want to do everything. While many restaurants are buying professional dishwashers, the startup believes that most food containers in restaurants are not clean. Instead, an outside company comes along and exchanges your piles of dirty plates, plastic containers and cutlery for clean ones.

Rather than trying everything, Bibak focuses on the area where it can bring the most benefit: this is the technology and platform that make up this thriving industry.

“We let professional laundry and logistics companies do their job. It’s a much stronger model because we can include industrial laundries,” says Dahmane.

So what does Bibak bring to the table? First, Bibak offers some transparency through the data. Customers can use the platform to view their stock in real time, count how many food packages are missing, set up a warehouse system and see the environmental impact of reusable packaging.

Second, Bibak helps you collect used food containers. The startup can send you smart return kiosks and build a deposit system that works for your specific restaurant. It can be a gamified system with rewards or a simple deposit system.

Thirdly, Bibak is also a fintech company in a sense. The company can manage the compensation and reward system for you.

The good news is that as Bibak grows, it becomes more and more efficient. “We want to offer the lowest possible cost per wash,” says Dahmane.

The company is targeting large customers first, as it believes smaller restaurants will follow once these major chains are on board. In total, more than 1.5 million disposable packaging was avoided. Bibak competes with another French startup called Pyxo.

People who work for Société Générale, Engie, Hermès, Danone or Vinci already use Bibak food containers. And on weekends, when people go to Roland Garros or We Love Green, they also interact with Bibak when they order a drink. Soon you will also be able to get a Bibak container when ordering groceries online.