UNICO raises 1.5 million euros to accelerate its growth and equip more than 400 organisations by 2024.

UNICO announces a first funding round of 1.5 million euros from several business angels to let it accelerate the commercial growth of its B2B and B2G SaaS solution for optimising waste collection logistics. Less than 2 years after its creation, the startup is already positioning itself as a reference in this fast-growing market, offering an alternative that is both technical and economic to the tedious Excel spreadsheets, paper forms and ageing software of a sector that has been too little digitalised.

Waste collection: a business under high pressure

Ten years ago, "collecting your waste" came down to removing the few household bins at the foot of a building. Today, environmental and economic pressures are completely upending a way of working too archaic to take part in a more circular economy. The observation is simple: waste collection in urban, rural or mixed areas is more and more complex.

• Technically first, because of the multiplication of waste streams (WEEE, medicines, biowaste, oils, textiles, more than 25 streams at European scale), the challenges of sorting and above all the obligation of traceability.
• Economically next: every kilometre driven by heavy goods vehicles across our regions costs money. That is all the more true in the current economic climate.
• In regulatory terms finally, with the LTECV in 2015, the AGEC law and more recently the Climat Résilience law, which set (very) ambitious foundations for waste management. The same observation applies in almost identical terms to our other European neighbours. Faced with these pressures, private, public and non-profit collectors often find themselves without resources: Excel spreadsheets, paper sheets to track routes, word of mouth, field experience that is never refreshed, and so on.

Renewing the digital offering with UNICO, to optimise collection logistics

UNICO is first of all the promise of making logistics management easier while optimising operations in the field, as close as possible to drivers and loaders. More concretely, the solution, sold as SaaS to private (70%) and public (30%) waste collectors, is built around two interfaces:

• UNITECH, a web platform for the service manager. It is the integrated, easy-to-use toolbox for running your service in an optimised and collaborative way.
• UNINAV, an onboard app for operators, drivers and field agents. It is the "Waze of waste": geolocation, navigation assistance, route optimisation and characterisation of collection points along the whole journey. The ergonomics, the scalability, the simplicity of use and the powerful route optimisation algorithms are all competitive advantages in a relatively uninnovative sector. But the strength of the offering also comes from the emphasis placed on the customer experience, in particular close support, an ultra-responsive after-sales service and a continual search for functional improvements.

Successes, many clients and an ambitious trajectory

UNICO is the story of a young company that in under 2 years has built and brought to market a solution embraced by more than 60 clients in France, in sectors as varied as waste collection, urban cleanliness and street furniture maintenance. Founded by Colin NICOLAS, Jules GRAMMONT and Clément MARTY, the Grenoble startup brings together some fifteen people and positions itself at the forefront of the finest French tech networks (GreenTech Innovation, CITEO, French Tech, Pépite and others).

It is now surrounding itself with a network of investors qualified in their field, notably Seed4Soft (a network of B2B software experts), Holnest (the family office of J.-M. Aulas) and Melting Capital (the tech investment vehicle of T. Dusautoir and L. Silva).

Clearing this new milestone will let it accelerate its commercial growth in France and then in Europe, to equip more than 400 organisations by 2024.

To that end, UNICO is investing in commercial and operational recruitment while taking care to keep a strong technical component in house. That last point is key to its strategy of diversifying into other sectors adjacent to TMS logistics in the medium term.

Frédéric Halley (Seed4Soft) – "In the waste collection sector, UNICO has already won over many public and private players with its SaaS solution. In a market as promising as this one, where French industry is at the leading edge, we are convinced that UNICO has great growth potential both in France and internationally, and can contribute to the sector's digital transformation."

Patrick BERTRAND (COO, Holnest) – "Waste management and recycling are a major issue in reducing our environmental impact. Managing and recycling means first of all collecting efficiently and selectively. With its software platform, UNICO positions itself as the partner of local authorities and companies in waste collection. Holnest is attentive to these issues, with the conviction that technology and digital are a tremendous and effective answer to all the urgent challenges we have to address in order to reduce our carbon footprint. UNICO is a fine example of that!"

Clément MARTY (CEO and co-founder, UNICO) – "We are delighted to have brought together such a fine community of investors who, as well as giving us the financial means for our ambitions, above all bring us expertise, a network and valuable experience. Every light is green; all that remains is to keep up our efforts!"

About

Seed4Soft is a club of software experts with an unmatched depth of experience in the field. Operating like a fund, Seed4Soft brings together more than 30 entrepreneurs and company directors who invest together between 200k and 500k€ in promising startups at the seed stage, in B2B software. Website: www.seed4soft.com

Holnest is the family office of the Aulas family. Holnest's ambition is to continue and accelerate the entrepreneurial adventure begun more than thirty years ago with the creation of Cegid and the takeover, then the growth, of Olympique Lyonnais. The aim is to deploy an active strategy in its areas of competence (digital, deeptech, entertainment, services and others) and in every field whose growth can be accelerated with digital. Holnest is run and led by Alexandre Aulas and Patrick Bertrand. www.holnest.fr

Melting Capital is an investor club, all entrepreneurs and friends, brought together around Thierry DUSAUTOIR and Laurent SILVA. In continuity with their entrepreneurial track records, Melting Capital's business angels invest mainly at pre-seed and seed in projects oriented towards SaaS, CPaaS, recurring revenue models and community. Founded in 2021, Melting Capital already supports seven holdings. www.melting.capital

Press contacts

• Clément MARTY, CEO I +33 (0)6 88 48 48 02 I clement.marty@unicofrance.com • Marine ESPASA, communications and marketing officer I marine.espasa@unicofrance.com