Urbyn: revolutionizing the traceability and recycling of corporate waste

Urbyn provides businesses with a solution for moving to the circular economy. Here's why we support them. 

Urbyn is the first SaaS platform enabling companies to recycle all their waste. Let's take a look at what convinced us to invest in this company.

Waste recycling, a new obligation for companies 

How much does waste management cost? Where do the different streams go? What is the recycling rate?

Today, few companies are able to answer these three questions with any precision. 

Yet waste management and recycling are becoming a legal obligation. 

Tougher regulations for more systematic recycling 

Regulations require companies to manage a growing number of waste streams. 

This is particularly true of European regulations, which require sorting at source and penalize unsorted waste via the TGAP tax, which has been rising steadily over the past 10 years.

A number of waste-to-energy plants are currently under construction, financed by the eco-tax paid by consumers.

As a result, new flows are becoming compulsory and have been steadily increasing in France in recent years:

In 2016, there were 5 mandatory flows : cardboard/paper, metals, plastics, wood and glass. 

By 2021, there were 7, two more with plaster and rubble. 

By 2025, there will be 8, after the addition of textile waste. 

The same applies to biowaste, for which the thresholds have steadily fallen to 0. 

Expenditure on waste treatment continues to rise

The amount spent by French companies on waste treatment has been rising steadily since 2000, from €9.3 billion to €20.6 billion in 2019, i.e. x2.2(Source).

The volume of waste recovered in France has also been rising steadily since 1996, from 3.7k tonnes to 14.8 in 2019 (x4).

Overall, the waste management market is becoming increasingly complex: in addition to the presence of the historic players, independent local players exist and are created every year, and collection solutions via eco-organizations are multiplying.

This makes the waste management offer difficult to understand and navigate for large companies.

As a result, there is a huge gap between known waste management solutions and existing local solutions.

But the size of the market is substantial, making partnerships and coexistence between competitors feasible.

This is not a winner-takes-it-all-market. 

Urbyn acts on all types of waste

Urbyn's aim is to help French companies manage their waste effectively, while reducing the ecological and economic cost of waste treatment.

A platform built around two benefits and 3 interfaces

Urbyn achieves the feat of better recycling for a lower final bill.

This is made possible by a good understanding of waste flows thanks to :

  • the Urbyn audit, which identifies more waste for recovery,
  • redirecting flows towards shorter, less expensive transport routes.

In concrete terms, Urbyn is a unique SaaS platform featuring :

Interface 1: A customer portal 

It offers a complete and transparent view of all waste. 

This is made possible by regulatory-compliant indicators and reporting, which also enable analysis of processing and cost improvements.

Interface 2: An internal back-office

This is Urbyn's internal interface for matching flows with the right service providers. 

Automated management has the advantage of orchestrating all the flows managed for customers through : 

  • a price database by service and information for over 1,000 regional service providers,
  • billing information, 
  • traceability of logistics flows 

Interface 3: A portal for service providers

This allows them to be alerted to the needs of new customers and to respond directly to requests for information. 

This portal facilitates exchanges between Urbyn and service providers: contracts, service prices, rounds, exchanges with the waste-producing customer, operational exchanges with Urbyn, etc.

Over 110 customers already won over 

Urbyn currently works with a dozen major accounts (ERI, Inea, Icade) and around a hundred SMEs. 

Thanks to a high-flying team of 20 employees led by Julien Hamilius and Arthur Däweritz, sales are set to increase by 54% in 2022, with a high retention rate!

This confirms the relevance of their value proposition and the sustainability of their business model. 

Partnerships with direct competitors are also conceivable: Urbyn has already discussed joint management of several customers with several partners, with a view to taking things even further.

"We called on Urbyn to collect our waste in the 11th arrondissement. The company is very responsive and available. The waste is collected twice a month by Urbyn's partners, who are very professional." Testimonial Fleet Manager - Road Transport Group

Proven positive impact 

On average, we see a 20% increase in the amount of waste sorted and recycled in the first year for each customer , with a cost reduction of up to 20%.

And that's just one of the many added values offered by Urbyn's service. They also include :

  • Urbyn customers have more KPIs for tracking waste and calculating carbon savings ,
  • Less polluting transport of waste, 
  • SMEs in the regions generate more income, 
  • By identifying service providers, customers who so wish can give priority to ESATs / disabled workers.

For all these reasons, we are very proud to enable Urbyn to accelerate the deployment of their solution on a larger scale through targeted recruitment and the reinforcement of their acquisition strategy.

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