Munich Startup: What does Tildi do? What problem do you solve?
Sofie Morber, Co-Founder: Tildi is more than just a platform for high-quality and tested used products for children. Our focus is on providing a comprehensive technology infrastructure that enables brands and retailers to tap into circular business models and go straight into resale. From take-back to quality inspection and resale, we provide the digital and logistical infrastructure to make entering the circular economy as easy and profitable as possible.
For brands and retailers, this means less effort, lower costs and more control over the product life cycle. With Tildi as a partner, brands and retailers can benefit directly from a growing market without having to set up extensive take-back and resale infrastructure themselves. Specifically, we have three services that we offer: an interface to our marketplace, the resale-as-a-service solution and a trade-in solution for end customers.
Through our trade-in service, we offer families an uncomplicated way to return used products, which are then reused in the resale system. This circular approach is not only sustainable, it also offers parents real time savings in their everyday lives.
Comprehensive infrastructure for circular and sustainable trade
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Sofie Morber: Although second-hand platforms already exist, Tildi combines high-quality used products with a comprehensive technology infrastructure that makes the entire resale process more efficient. We also understand that circular does not work in a linear way and rely on a strong partner network. Our trade-in and resale-as-a-service solutions enable brands and retailers to make their own products circular and sustainable. This sets us apart from other offerings and creates real added value for our partners and end customers.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Sofie Morber: Tildi was born out of our own “need”, i.e. our experiences as a mother or aunt, on the one hand, and our strong interest and commitment to recommerce and the desire to create something that is still missing on the market, on the other.
Before Tildi, Doris had a blog in which she interviewed recommerce companies and was able to gain a lot of industry insights. Fun fact: We got to know each other through this blog and the blog’s Instagram page. It quickly became clear that we wanted to work together on Tildi, as we complement each other very well with our different skills and backgrounds.
We have since added Rohith to our founding team as CTO, as we see Tildi primarily as a tech platform. Otherwise, recommerce cannot be thought of as circular enough.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
As a marketplace, we need a trustee or a Bafin license. We had to be quite persistent and patient to find an uncomplicated solution for our customers and ourselves.
And the issue of visibility is also a challenge given the current prices for marketing, for example what influencers are currently charging.
Tildi wants to become a technological pioneer for sustainable consumption
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where would you like to be in five years?
Sofie Morber: Over the next twelve months, we want to significantly expand the use of our resale-as-a-service solutions with additional strong partners and make the trade-in and the platform better known to end customers.
In five years, we want to establish Tildi as the leading platform for circular trade in children’s products and as a technological pioneer for sustainable consumption – for families as well as for brands and retailers – not only in Germany.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Sofie Morber: Munich not only offers us a strong community of sustainability-conscious parents, but also an established technology landscape. Tildi is part of the Werk1 startup network in the Werksviertel district. Here we find an inspiring community and valuable support.
We also receive support from the Social-Startup-Hub Bayern and are pleased that the circular economy (reuse and not just recycling) is also increasingly being addressed in Munich, for example through Circular Republic’s “Circular Economy Startup Landscape”.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Sofie Morber: We rely on a strategic combination: the development of our software and all processes relating to quality assurance and customer support remain with us, as they form the core of our circular business model. For special technical requirements, further support with software development and infrastructure such as warehousing, we rely on external partners in order to remain flexible and efficient.
