ShelfNow: The marketplace that ‘knows’ traders directly with food producers

Filippos Linardos (29 years old)

ΚΛΑΔΟΣ: b2b Marketplace – SHELFNOW

Good food quality is non-negotiable. How easy is it for retailers to access quality products and what is the mechanism that brings them in contact with suppliers? The existing food supply system is based on the obsolete model of the Intruder, which has high distribution costs and consequently low profit margins, while being inaccessible to small and medium-sized producers, making up 90% of not from mass-produced brands.

Disappointment with traders in the food distribution chain led Filippos (CEO) and Sajid Ghani (COO) (HB, 50 years old) to create ShelfNow, a marketplace that through digitization makes their distribution more food producers and traders, who now have direct access to new quality products, while ensuring better prices.

The platform, which went on the air in mid-2019, enables buyers-traders to discover with intelligent guidance and supply new, relatively local quality products, without intermediaries, providing transparency in buying and selling, but also lower costs.

In addition, ShelfNow can take over the entire transaction process up to the logistics services, while also providing the possibility of credit, so that the buyer can pay up to two months later, while the producer is paid directly without risk.

Today ShelfNow represents about 4,000 unique codes from about 300 suppliers from all over Europe, including Greece, where the export problem is daily.

These days Filippos and Sajid are completing the second seed 1,000,000 seed financing, which will help them grow and expand faster. The initial group of the two today consists of a total of 7 people, with the exception of the 3-member advisory board from the food, technology and data science sectors (Deliveroo, HSBC, Barclays).

A common goal of Filippos (he has studied Biology for undergraduate and Business & Management for postgraduate at CASS Business School) and Sajid is to establish ShelfNow as the most desirable platform / marketplace for food distribution in Europe.

Methodology: Out of the more than 100 nominations collected by “Forbes” – either through applications of the interested parties themselves or through proposals from institutions and competent bodies – the editorial team made a first selection and came up with 50. The jury, which consisted of Mr. Spyros Theodoropoulos (CEO of Chipita), Nikos Karamouzis (former President of Eurobank and the Hellenic Banking Association, President of Grant Thornton), Michalis Bletsas (Director of Informatics at MIT Media Lab), Theocharos Filipos Capital.gr, president of Attica Publications), evaluated the 50 candidacies with scores from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest), based on which the final ranking was formed. The order of publication is defined according to the members’ rating (from highest to lowest) and then alphabetically. Conditions for participation in the list “Forbes 30 Under 30 Greece 2022” were met by those born from 1/1/1992 onwards.

* Cleesto: The platform that offers digital solutions in the tourism industry

* Project Parenting is the first educational platform that supports parents

* Staiatis Voglis: The startupper who shares the same passion for sustainable fishing and information services

* Stefanos Douskos: He did not give up and was justified

* Marialina Tsinidi: The 17-year-old student whose experiments travel in space

* CollegeLink: The platform that connects young people with the job market

* Nikolas Varveris and OVIVIEW open the door of employers to young people

* Authentic fishing experiences in the Mediterranean via Fisea

* Thanasis Gavelas: The gold paralympian who twice broke the world record in Tokyo

* Video games and virtual reality made in Greece by eNVy softworks and V. Karavasilis