Palau Project Financial Model

Three-part mobile app:

1. Barcode scanner - scans food products, returns an ecological score (e.g. 87/100), CO2 emissions vs. category average, packaging rating, palm-oil flag, and regional alternatives.
2. Diet footprint calculator - user inputs diet type and consumption frequency; app returns annual water usage and carbon footprint vs. average.
3. Tailored food basket / marketplace - weekly/monthly curated basket of high-scoring products; users can switch to recommended alternatives.

Supporting features: community, gamification ("climate journey"), recipes with CO2 and calorie data, academy content.

Tagline: "Buy Well. Live Better." - promise of up to 70% reduction in consumer environmental impact.

• TAM proxy: 57M European consumers identified as the addressable population.
• Competitor-held: ~17.5M users across existing competitor apps.
• Remaining opportunity: 67% of the 57M = ~38M users; note the deck presents this as "remaining market share to capture" - not a revenue TAM figure.
• Demand signals: 37% of European consumers deeply care about sustainability; 13% post-COVID shifted to buying more eco-friendly food brands (source: McKinsey & Company).
• No € revenue TAM/SAM/SOM breakdown in deck. No CAGR or market growth rate cited.

• Primary: marketplace commission - 3–5% on every product sold through the app.
• The deck references an EU regulatory angle ("European Union" on slide 10) suggesting potential future B2G or compliance-driven revenue, but this is not elaborated.
• No subscription fee, freemium tier pricing, or B2B data revenue mentioned in deck.
• No GMV projections, average basket size, or order frequency shown.

All figures from slides 13–15; no revenue numbers are disclosed.

App metrics:

• 25–30 organic downloads per day
• 10,000 total scans to date
• 1h 45min average engagement time (likely per session or per week - not specified)
• 0 → 700 WAU (weekly active users) in Portugal in one month

Social:

• TikTok video: 430K views

User geography:

• Portugal: 832 users
• Belgium: 685
• Spain: 252
• United States: 242
• Germany: 144
• United Kingdom: 89
• Italy: 86
• (Additional countries exist - "View countries" link on slide)

Recognition & non-dilutive funding:

• Top 10 finalist out of 3,000 startups at Food 4 Future (Bilbao)
• Top 8 startups at BNEW E-commerce Hub (Barcelona)
• €50K subsidy from Flanders Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Vlaanderen is Ondernemen)

Pipeline / momentum:

• Partnership with Noise Studios
• Wefunder expanding into Europe; Palau selected among first 10 startups for crowdfunding campaign
• Invited to pitch at Web Summit

Direct competitors (efficient tech tools):

• Yuka, Open Food Facts, myrealfood, Eugène, ScanUp

Adjacent / emotional sustainability players:

• Sea Shepherd, Earth Hero, Greenpeace, Klima, 4ocean

Positioning: Palau claims to be the only product sitting at the intersection of "efficient tech tool" (transparency/scanning) AND "emotional satisfaction" (ocean/planet narrative) - a Venn diagram positioning with no current overlap competitor identified.

Stated moat drivers: community, gamification, convenience, impact measurement. Proprietary ecological scoring algorithm implied but not detailed.

Founding team:

• Jerome - CEO/Hustler: EAE Business School; marketing background; content creator; world champion (discipline not stated); 2 documentaries on Amazon Prime.
• Simon - CTO/Hacker: School 19; fullstack dev internship at DPG-Media (VTM.be).

Extended team:

• Holly - Environmental journalist / content writer
• Jade - COO & Advisor; Senior McKinsey consultant
• Emilio - Marketing; Head of Content at Moonroi
• Toby - Product Manager; Technical Account Manager at Qualtrics
• Nina - User Research intern; content creation at DuoTone

Funding ask:

• Seed round: €500K
• Use of funds allocation:
• Team (key hires: growth, data architecture, front/back-end, R&D): 47% = ~€235K
• Marketing (growth campaigns, paid performance, climate influencers): 23% = ~€115K
• Platform (infra scaling, analytics, dev outsourcing): 20% = ~€100K
• Operations (office, equipment, team): 10% = ~€50K

Equity note: "Equity for thrifters" - implies crowdfunding / retail equity round (consistent with Wefunder mention).

• Archetype + why: Consumer marketplace / app monetisation model - specifically a two-sided marketplace GMV + commission P&L, layered with a user-growth funnel (downloads → MAU → transacting users). The business is pre-revenue; the model must bridge from app user counts to basket GMV to net revenue. A lightweight 3-statement is appropriate at seed but the core driver is the conversion funnel and GMV build.

• Forecast horizon & granularity: 3 years (Year 1–3), monthly in Year 1, quarterly in Years 2–3. Seed capital depleted model to show runway.

• Key drivers & assumptions:

• Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex):
• Bear: Transacting user conversion stays at 3%; basket frequency 1.5x/month; take rate 3%; marketing spend underperforms.
• Base: 7% conversion by Year 2; basket 2x/month; 4% take rate; 15% MoM download growth off seed marketing.
• Bull: 15% conversion by Year 2 driven by community/gamification flywheel; 3x/month basket; partnerships (Noise Studios, Wefunder) accelerate user acquisition at lower CAC.

• Required sheets / outputs:

1. Assumptions - all drivers in one tab, colour-coded inputs.
2. User funnel - Downloads → Installs → MAU → WAU → Transacting users (monthly, Year 1).
3. GMV & Revenue - Basket GMV × take rate = net revenue.
4. P&L - Net revenue, gross profit, OpEx by category (team, marketing, platform, operations), EBITDA, net loss.
5. Cash & Runway - Seed €500K + €50K grant vs. monthly burn; months-to-zero, next raise trigger.
6. Headcount plan - role-by-role hire schedule tied to seed use-of-funds.
7. Scenario toggle - Bear / Base / Bull switch feeding into funnel and P&L.
8. KPI dashboard - MAU, WAU, GMV, net revenue, burn rate, runway (months).