Nilus

Nilus is a technology company whose mission is to alleviate hunger by lowering the cost of access to healthy food and groceries for low-income people. The company was incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs and is dedicated to streamlining inefficiencies in the food supply chain by leveraging the power of disintermediation and community group buying.

Nilus develops technology to procure food and groceries directly from farmers and producers and distributes them among low-income people who live in food deserts through community group buying networks led by women, who consolidate individual orders to access wholesale prices. The company offers products at 70-75% of their market price to families and community kitchens in food deserts. It secures its financial sustainability by operating as a digital retailer for the bottom of the pyramid.

Community leaders are the key competitive strength of Nilus, as they promote the solution among community members leveraging circles of trust and organize the last-mile logistics using their own homes or community centres as pick-up points, thereby guaranteeing a low-cost and secure way of doing business in the community.

Nilus operates directly in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. In 2023, it will begin expanding across Latin America in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme. Additionally, it seeks to expand globally by digitally empowering other organizations in the food distribution space – such as government and philanthropic organizations. In 2022, Nilus represented an average savings of 24% to over 115,000 beneficiaries in Buenos Aires and Mexico City.

Nilus aspires to become the largest and most impactful technology company in the Americas thanks to its contribution in the fight against food insecurity. The company was recognized among the 100 Ideas That Can Change 1 Billion Lives by the Norrsken Foundation and the 2019 World Changing Ideas by Fast Company Magazine.