Interview with Raphaëlla Nolleau, CEO of Yacon&Co

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Last February, the TV show "Qui Veut Être mon Associé" introduced Yacon&Co to a wide audience. In an interview with Raphaëlla Nolleau, CEO of Yacon&Co, we take a look back at this adventure, as well as at the beginnings of this fast-growing start-up, which has set itself a simple but no less ambitious mission: to de-sugarize the French.

What is yacon?

Its cultivation, rooted in the Andes region, stems from the ancestral tradition of the native people of Peru, yacon's homeland. In this region, yacon is used in a variety of ways: as a vegetable, in flour, in syrup, and as an infusion prepared from the plant's leaves and/or roots.

Yacon&Co has turned this plant, introduced to France in the 19th century, into a syrup with a single aim: to replace sugar.

"Ever since I was a little girl, I've had digestive problems. I ended up going to see doctors to understand the source of my ailments. I wasn't allergic or intolerant to anything. So I looked at what was on my plate. Although I've always been healthy, I used to make granola bowls with agave syrup in the morning, for example... When I analyzed what I was eating, I realized that my sugar and glucose levels were too high, even though I had the impression that I was eating healthily", Raphaëlla explains.

Further research revealed that agave syrup is 75% sugar. A sugar bomb caused by hyper-processing of the plant, which would be almost like adding white sugar to your plate.

"Sugar prevents the [intestinal] microbiota from functioning properly, so I decided to stop eating it for 1 year. I was very unhappy, because I love the taste of sugar. When I met my partner Thierry, who is diabetic, I learned that there was an alternative solution. That solution is yacon".

Thanks to Yacon, Thierry has stopped taking insulin injections. By combining deliciousness and healthy nutrition, this promising Peruvian plant has become the ultimate weapon in Yacon&Co's war on sugar.

Yacon & Co: media coverage:

In 2022, Yacon&Co will be communicating intensively via social networks to educate the French about what Yacon is, but also to democratize its consumption.

"We used social networks a lot to communicate, because Yacon requires a lot of explanation. We first launched on Instagram, then, I took to TikTok and in just two months, we gained 60,000 followers."

Raphaëlla goes on to explain that despite the growing interest of TikTok subscribers, the videos weren't generating any income for them:

"When you're a young company, it's important to prioritize your projects. I was taking up a lot of time creating content on this network, so we decided to put TikTok on pause, just long enough to get sales off the ground and get a team in place." she clarifies.

Today, Yacon&Co adds value through its YouTube channel, on which they publish cooking videos, in which they invite influencers to cook Yacon-based recipes with them.

In addition to communication on YouTube and Instagram, Raphaëlla speaks out through her LinkedIn profile, on which she documents her life as an entrepreneur.

Who Wants to Be My Partner: a game changer for Yacon&Co :

"Thanks to "Who Wants To Be My Partner," we gained 25,000 followers very quickly. While these numbers are impressive, what matters most to us is engaging followers. We don't want any phantom followers," Raphaëlla tells us.

On the evening of their visit, Yacon&Co achieves a year's sales in one evening.

"We took part in "Qui Veut Être Mon Associé" because we were in the middle of raising funds to finance our factory in Peru. In addition to the financial need, we needed competent people, and we were very happy to have Kelly Massol join the adventure."

Although the fund-raising was not finalized with Kelly for administrative reasons, the show brought Yacon&Co a great deal of notoriety and resonance for their mission: to democratize Yacon to de-sugar the French.

Click here for all the latest Yacon&Co news .

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