Sodexo Seeking Analytics and CX Start-Ups

Food, facilities and hospitality services provider Sodexo has announced the global launch of an Accelerator Programme with categories for entrepreneurs in data analytics and customer experience.

The company was founded as a catering business in Marseille in 1966, and is still widely known for its foodservice, but today offers a wide portfolio of services including facilities management, hospitality and employee benefit solutions. Its 430,000 employees serve around 80 million consumers each day, and the company already partners with more than 100 start-ups in France, China, Brazil, Sweden, USA, the UK and Ireland, to identify emerging technologies and business models. The programme is going global for the first time in 2024.

For Data Analytics, Sodexo states: 'we use global insight and the latest technologies to support our clients' workplaces. Data is the life blood of these technologies, and this category will look for data analytics solutions to help Sodexo's global accounts team to improve its use of data across its client accounts... Solutions or technologies that use predictive analysis, data visualisation tools, and improved data collection methods are three of the key areas we are keen to explore'.

For the Customer Experience category, the firm comments: 'We want to see if we can use innovative solutions to increase the ease and accessibility of our sites, how we can increase the flexibility of our workforce and optimise resource utilisation to deliver the best possible experience, and how we can capture the voice of our customers seamlessly to ensure we are driving continuous improvement... What solutions exist that allow us to hear the voice of the end user in real time and without being intrusive? If you have a solution that you think can help us, please apply'.

Sustainability and operational efficiency are the other two categories specifically described, in addition to a 'Wildcard' option. Selected business will be given the opportunity to test their innovation in live consumer environments within Sodexo's client sites, and will receive mentoring from its senior executives, gain insights from subject matter experts, and potentially receive investment at a later date.

Details are at www.sodexo.com/en/news/newsroom/2024/sodexo-launches-start-up-applications-for-its-global-accelerator-program Closing date 25th February.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.