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The Matsmart founders
Erik Södergren
,
Karl Andersson
and
Ulf Skagerström
(from left)
Photo: KGZ Fougstedt
Karl Andersson
(43) is not calm.
The entrepreneur can only stand it for a few sentences at his workplace in the house, then he rushes into the garden, pauses briefly in front of a picturesque forest landscape near Stockholm - and paces back.
Andersson circles again and again;
sometimes it drives him so far away from the router that the connection of the video call breaks off completely.
These are exciting days in June for the founder.
He has just brought his online shop to Germany.
The hope: growth explosion.
Under the Motatos brand, Andersson sells groceries that do not make it to the supermarket or find no buyers there - for example because the labels were printed incorrectly, packaging is dented or products with absurd flavors such as “stadium sausage” fruit gum simply cannot be sold.
The unsteady retailer is already generating around 50 million euros in sales this year.
And there is always room for growth: in Germany alone, twelve million tons of food with a value of 20 billion euros are thrown away every year.
In addition to Andersson, waste recently brought a number of founders to the scene.
The makers of the “Karma” or “Too Good To Go” apps, for example, which customers can use to buy leftover items from restaurants or bakeries for little money and pick them up in the evening.
Or the Berlin supermarket chain Sirplus, which sells expired groceries.
Do-gooder with profit intent
The special thing about Andersson: Although he is on the road as a do-gooder, he leads his start-up according to the tough rules of the venture capital scene: rapid growth, rapid market dominance, the prospect of substantial profits.
The renowned venture capitalist Northzone or strategists such as Ikea and the LeadX Capital fund, which Metro AG is largely behind, believe in his business idea.
So far, they have invested around 40 million euros in Motatos, which operates as Matsmart in its home country Sweden.
It's an interesting experiment: Can a company solve a problem of the affluent society while producing an abundance of money for its founders - and still keep the core fan clientele involved?
"From a venture capitalist's point of view, I'm skeptical," says
Wilken Engelbracht
(47), partner at the digital and technology investor TEV (formerly: Tengelmann Ventures).
"Of course these companies have a right to exist, but social impact companies get a legitimation problem if they become too commercially successful."
Andersson meanwhile plans to turn over 100 million euros in a few years and expects to raise further risk capital along the way.
He sees his company like a supermarket: “I buy the goods and sell them.” The most problematic is when he receives the food for free and makes a profit with it.
Motatos actually originated in a supermarket.
Andersson's friend and co-founder
Erik Södergren ran
a shop in a suburb of Stockholm and sold discounted groceries in a corner that was difficult to sell.
All went well, and Södergren began buying and selling unpopular goods cheaply from neighborhood dealers.
He became known as "the guy who buys anything you struggle with," says Andersson.
When they realized in 2013 how large the amount of wasted food was, they decided to set up.
"We have always underestimated the growth"
At first they only took care of the business on the side, but that was soon no longer possible.
Sales picked up: In the first year sales were three million euros, two years later it was twelve million, and the ride is still unbroken today.
“We always underestimated the growth,” says Andersson.
"We had a 50-square-meter warehouse and thought that would last forever."
Forced to professionalize by growth and investors, the founders recently turned their model until, according to their own statements, they broke even in their home market of Sweden.
In Germany, Motatos expects sales of 10 million euros for the first year;
In 2021 it should be 16 million.
Andersson positions the online shop as an offer for bargain hunters who are also on the lookout for unusual foods.
Only those who take a closer look around the website will find that the company wants to save food.
Since Motatos only offers durable items that don't need to be refrigerated, there is no trace of the organic touch that companies like Sirplus rely on.
In contrast to other business models, where mainly (almost) expired goods from supermarkets or restaurants are to be kept in front of the container, Andersson focuses on cooperation with industry - i.e. on the step before the food reaches the shops.
At first it was difficult, so Andersson, no chain would have wanted to admit the waste.
The prospect of sales from products that had actually already been written off was convincing.
The business model has a few real weak points: supermarkets, for example, see that the concept is successful, they could easily launch a competing product on their websites that would reach larger user groups.
It is also conceivable that if the manufacturers are successful, they will raise their prices and the business will be less profitable.
Points of antipathy for competition with the board
In addition, companies like Motatos are already competing with the food banks and collecting real antipathy points.
The aid organization passes on food to around 1.6 million people in need across Germany.
Although the waste is gigantic and the companies are still viewed more as a supplement, the board said at Motatos' market launch.
But it is also true that food banks in some regions have problems getting enough food.
New market participants are viewed critically there, and there should be no further entries.
In addition to the supermarkets or catering companies, the food banks are increasingly cooperating with the industry in order to receive food donations directly from the manufacturers - exactly where Motatos also buys leftovers.
"When producers realize at some point that they can sell something instead of giving it away, they may no longer give it away for free for charitable purposes," says investor Engelbracht.
Andersson knows the criticism.
He believes there will always be waste in the industry that needs to be addressed.
The EU has set itself the goal of reducing this by around 50 percent by 2030.
But even if it is successful, more than 40 million tons of food will end up in the trash every year in around ten years.
Good for Andersson: The man needs freedom of movement, in every respect.