€3M in 4 years: Ekillibre's crazy bet on school canteens

Benoît Leplae has always had a taste for challenges. After 8 jobs in 8 years, he became a financial director in a high school... And that's when it clicked.

School canteens can no longer continue like this.

In 2020, he launched Ekillibre, with a simple but revolutionary idea: to offer schools healthy and balanced meals, cooked by local caterers, accessible via a simple app for parents, and without any management for the establishments.

Four years later, the figures are impressive: 8,000 meals served every day, 200 partner schools, 30 local caterers, 10 employees, and a turnover of nearly 3 million euros.

Benoît did not build this success alone. He took his father, his wife and his best friend on the adventure. A family team for a mission with a societal impact: to increase the rate of children who eat hot food from 10% to 20-25% in partner schools.

But behind the success story, there were difficult choices. A categorical refusal to switch to part-time work that pushed him to leave his post overnight. Sometimes tense discussions on the balance between professional and personal life. And growth so rapid that it had to be slowed down to stabilize the model.

No spectacular fundraising.

Just a clear vision: to reinvent the school canteen and prove that it is possible to combine health, proximity and social impact.

In this episode, we come back to:

• How Benoît got the idea for Ekillibre while working in a school

• The moment he quit his job overnight to go 100%

• Why he chose to involve his father, his wife and his best friend in the adventure

• The challenges of rapid growth: from 14 to 200 schools in 4 years

• His vision for the future: to stabilize, then move on to another dimension without betraying himself

An inspiring episode that shows that it is possible to transform a sector as traditional as school catering... by keeping their feet on the ground.