Graduates' smart fridge to revolutionise lunch breaks

As Pierre-Yves Coeurdevey and Coline Casini have observed: the traditional company canteen no longer meets expectations. To revolutionise the way employees eat during lunch breaks, the two alumni launched Carot, a startup offering connected fridges. It all began in 2019 when the two friends had the idea of installing one of these in gyms in the Lyon region.

Made of odds and ends, this first fridge immediately found its audience: employees that were working up a sweat between noon and 2pm, during a CrossFit class. "Our first fridge was wooden, connected to a simple iPad. The athletes would help themselves, record what they took on the iPad and then pay us. We offered recipes from our central kitchen, which we prepared ourselves," explains Coline Casini, who has a professional cooking and pastry diploma and worked for several years at a restaurant in New York. It was a trust-based system that worked very well until the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted French habits. It led to the two entrepreneurs rethinking their model, and exiting the gymnasiums and the central kitchen model.

"After Covid, we decided to focus on businesses rather than gyms. And as customers wanted more variety on the menu, we abandoned our central kitchen idea. We now work with the best restaurants and caterers in the Lyon region," says Pierre-Yves Coeurdevey, who worked at Michel et Augustin as sales director and then as a key accounts manager. With over 20 different recipes per week, the two partners offer several packages and dishes starting from 5.50 euros. In terms of culinary options, Carot' offers "healthy", "snacking" or "world cuisine" dishes, which include seasonal products, short supply chains and, importantly, eco-friendly packaging.

The pandemic has accelerated the implementation of new practices during lunch breaks in companies and businesses. Seen by many employees as an optimal time to undertake various activities, lunch is no longer limited to the traditional lunch break. "With remote working, many businesses have rethought how they manage their company canteens. The latter can involve a lot of fixed costs, which is not necessarily relevant when many people are not on site due to the option to work remotely. The time is ripe to start an office food court," analyse Coline and Pierre-Yves.

Carot' offers companies the option to rent one or more of its "connected fridges" (which occupies 1m2 of floor space) and pay a subscription to the platform. The connected fridges are similar to vending machines for snacks but provide fresh meals instead of snacks. Less restrictive than food delivery, Carot' delivers the dishes daily, which are placed in its fridge. Consumers simply need to create an account on Carot's website, where they can enter their bank details. When they go to eat, they just need to swipe their card, serve themselves, and leave with their dish. No queue to make the payment. Simple and smooth process, and delicious meals instantly!​​