Welcome to Startup Spotlight, where we shine a light on innovative companies transforming the supply chain industry. Bluicity is on a mission to improve food quality and reduce waste. The Ontario-based startup specializes in digitalizing and automating logistics chains for the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this installment of Startup Spotlight, SC247's Andy Gray spoke with CEO and Co-Founder Bob Burrows to discuss the company's evolution, fundraising efforts, and the entrepreneur he most admires.
Company Snapshot
Name: Bluicity
Headquarters: Ontario, Canada
Year founded: 2020
Bluicity is out to improve food quality and reduce waste. To achieve this, we use continuous data collection and processing at the product level. It's not just about knowing “I have 26 pallets of lettuce”; it's about understanding more detailed aspects such as, “What type of pallets? Where are they from? What temperatures have each pallet been through?” This applies not just to produce but also to meat, considering 18% of meat spoils between packaging and shelf.
The solution to reducing food waste isn't just about having AI search through paperwork. It's about knowing what specific products have gone through and predicting their condition so that companies can take proactive steps to optimize operations instead of just filing complaints with insurance companies 30 days later. We want to predict these conditions. That was the genesis of our startup.
This is my second go at it. The first time, we realized that no existing technology supported automation-grade, continuous information collection. With Bluicity, we spent a couple of years developing that capability before we started work on the applications. Now, we have a patent on it and we're moving forward.
Editor's Note: FSMA Section 204 requires the FDA to designate foods for which additional recordkeeping requirements are appropriate and necessary to protect public health
The new traceability requirements give us an advantage since our solution is baked into the product. We're looking to raise $2.5 million so we can really hit hard. We have the technology, which is the hard part. But now we need the sales team to sell, it needs to be marketed, and we need to win this market share.
I'm a believer in sustainability. There's something called the Green Movement, where people protest and push for big companies to be more environmentally friendly. But there's also a Blue Movement, which focuses more on what individuals can do themselves. That part is interesting to me. So, I started with “blue,” and the “icity” part is like “ethnicity.” Besides all that, the domain name was available.
“It's worth the extra time to vet the people who work for you and make sure they see your vision and want to be held accountable.”
I'd say that it's worth the extra time to vet the people who work for you and make sure they see your vision and want to be held accountable.
Our patent was published in December. It's a very powerful patent. Without getting too technical, we are the only company with wireless technology that guarantees data delivery. We set out to achieve this because if we couldn't, we couldn't do everything else.
I was at Motorola for a while early in my career, and it was fun. I didn't know why I was there, but I didn't know enough to be anywhere else. So I'd say find something you love, do it for a company that is a leader in that field, and work in the part of the company that makes a difference.
A person I look up to is Desh Deshpande. I knew him for a couple of years at Motorola. He came from India, became a self-made billionaire, and is a very smart guy. I'm not personally in touch with him anymore, but he's published YouTube of interviews and offers great guidance.