Campus - 29.10.2024 - 11:25
Whether a restaurant sells a lot of menus depends not only on the price or quality of what it offers. “When the weather is warm, for example, soups are less in demand, but sushi is all the more so. And other food vendors sell less or more when there are vacations or when more people are out and about in the city because of an event,” says Matthieu Ochsner. His startup GoNiña has developed an AI that predicts how many meals food providers will sell in a given day.
“The AI is currently being tested in two businesses and is 85 to 92 percent accurate, making it significantly more precise than existing solutions,” says 33-year-old Ochsner. At the beginning of 2023, the HSG graduate joined forces with ETH graduate Ferdinand von Hagen to found this startup. GoNiña aims to reduce food waste. “Around a third of food is still thrown away in Switzerland. Globally, food waste contributes 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Ochsner. Their vision is to fight against this while also supporting local businesses.
In addition to developing AI, GoNiña offers an app that connects food providers with consumers. The app shows consumers whether restaurants, bakeries or supermarkets in their area, for example, are offering discounted goods – food that has not been sold regularly and would otherwise have to be thrown away.
The small startup GoNiña, with its six employees, is competing against the internationally active Danish provider Too Good To Go. As reported by the CH Media newspapers in September, the latter has cut dozens of jobs in Switzerland. “Too Good Too Go has established the idea, but in interviews with restaurants and customers, we have often heard that only a few people use the app regularly,” says Ochsner. Her app aims to alert users with personalized notifications when their preferred restaurant has leftover food for sale nearby. “This eliminates the sometimes tedious search for offers,” says Ochsner. The idea of making recurring bookings possible via the app is also being considered. For example, anyone working from home on Friday can reserve a meal nearby for that day.
The app went live in February 2024. It now has over 8,000 users and 45 companies throughout Switzerland offer meals on it. The focus is still on Zurich and the surrounding area, but more and more companies are joining all the time.
In addition to the users, the companies should also be able to use GoNiña more easily. The startup does not charge providers a fixed commission, whereas Too Good To Go charges three francs per order, regardless of the total price, according to reports. “For small, local businesses, that's often a reason not to participate. If, for example, they offer a five-franc menu, there's not much left over.” By contrast, GoNiña takes a 25 percent contribution from the customer price and there is no annual fee.
For the time being, the startup is still being driven primarily by idealism: Ochsner and von Hagen are not paying themselves a salary and have financed the company themselves. “Our employees receive modest wages by Zurich standards. But they can quickly make a difference in their field,” says Ochsner. They are currently also in talks with various investors for an initial round of financing.
Ochsner worked in consulting for several years after graduating from the University of St.Gallen and the Rotterdam School of Management. “Over time, it became increasingly clear to me that I wanted to use my energy to do something about climate change,” he says. When he left the consulting industry, he worked at the Zurich startup SmallPdf. As Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy, he helped grow the company from 50 to 150 employees over two years. “I knew even then that I wanted to found a company – and I learned a lot from working at an international startup,” says Ochsner.
Ochsner still maintains connections with the university today. In October, he spoke at the Social Business Club, started by HSG students. “In addition, I built up a good network through my studies in St.Gallen. When I need access to experts to discuss a question, my HSG background is often a door opener.”
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