Califrais has announced that it has raised €1.5 million from STEF, a specialist in temperature-controlled transport and logistics. This round of financing will enable the company to support the accelerated digitisation of Rungis Market, where it is based. Califrais and STEF, along with Webhelp, were recently selected in a bidding process to operate the Rungis Market e-commerce site.
Pierre Levy, one of the three founders of Califrais, completed an internship at Mouysset, a company specializing in wholesale food trade for traditional French restaurants in 2013. The following year, alongside Simon Bussy and Ross Lawrence, he launched Califrais, a digital sourcing platform allowing restaurant owners to source fresh produce direct from Rungis. He states:
“I discovered the Market but also the world of catering and the difficulty of managing supplies, particularly in terms of flexibility. So we launched an offer allowing restaurant owners to have access to all types of products by ordering online until midnight for delivery the next morning.
Restaurant owners had to close their establishments at certain times during the pandemic, at others restrict their activities, Califrais lost customers as did the wholesalers. But the start-up was able to bounce back and, with the support of Semmaris and the Île-de-France region, launched the “Rungis delivered to your home” platform to deliver Rungis products to individuals.
To achieve this feat, Pierre Levy was able to rely on the digital agility of his company and thanks to the mathematics research laboratory launched by Simon Bussy, the start-up can “optimize the business, obtain better price accuracy or even better stock management“. A machine learning research lab has also been created as the company said two years ago:
“Califrais generates data as diverse as it is rich and complex. In the logistics and supply chain sectors, recent (and upcoming!) machine learning techniques could well revolutionise the level of service as we understand it today, by proposing personalised recommendation and management strategies, by working in anticipation rather than curation, by optimising internal operating processes to limit the risk of unfavourable events, while reducing the overall bill.”
Following the success of “Rungis delivered to your door”, Califrais created Foodufrais for private individuals and dedicated the Califrais service to restaurant owners.
Following a call for tenders, Rungis Market entrusted the operation of the new version of its marketplace to the consortium made up of Califrais, STEF and Webhelp at the end of September. A new digital solution will be offered to restaurant owners and food professionals, for the benefit of all the players in the value chain, and mainly the Market’s wholesalers.
Pierre Lévy comments:
“As soon as the solution is set up, Rungis wholesalers will have access to all our technological tools for preparing goods and managing stocks.”
For its part, the STEF group will provide wholesalers with the benefit of its recognized expertise in organizing the flow of food goods from -25°C to +15°C as part of the new version of the Rungis marketplace. Finally, Webhelp will support Califrais in the management of its customer experience and order administration.
It was therefore an obvious choice for Califrais to raise €1.5 million from the STEF group, which will enable it to increase its team from around 30 employees to 50 by the end of 2022, including 10 new ones by next January, and to meet the challenge of digitizing Rungis Market. Pierre Lévy states:
“This fundraising will enable us to better meet the challenges that await us in 2022 and well beyond. We are taking this new step alongside STEF, with whom we are already working on the rungismarket.com website. Together, we plan to continue digitizing Rungis Market and, more broadly, the supply of food professionals, a subject that leaves room for many more innovations!”
For his part, Stanislas Lemor, CEO STEF is also pleased:
“We are pleased to accompany Califrais in this new stage of its development. We are convinced that the collaboration between our European Group and this high potential French start-up will be very rewarding and will bring more and more added value to our customers. This partnership is fully in line with the Group’s approach of opening up to its start-up ecosystem and its innovation programme, which has been underway for over three years.”
Califrais, like STEF, seeks to develop its services by taking into consideration the environmental impact. As such, Califrais makes a single delivery for all products, with trucks running on natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. All documents are also dematerialized and accessible directly on the platform. STEF has been committed for many years to an energy transition process and has presented a new roadmap, called “Moving Green”. It includes 3 objectives: to reduce GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, to use 100% low-carbon energy in buildings by 2025, and to support subcontracting partners in a more virtuous approach to the environment.
Translated from Logistique & transport intelligent : la société Califrais lève 1,5 million d’euros auprès du groupe STEF
