A new digital platform will soon help you save money on groceries.
If you’ve been down a grocery aisle, it’s hard not notice the price of food ticking up. A recent Statistics Canada report said grocery prices increased 21.6 per cent between February 2021 and February 2024. Comparing the price of groceries from different stores can help save money, but if you’ve ever tried this, you realize how tedious and time-consuming it can be. That’s where Frugi, a grocery price comparison platform developed by Master of Digital Media alumni, can help.
“As newcomers in Canada, we realized there is no easy way to compare grocery prices. While we were studying, food prices continued to climb and we realized a price comparison platform could be a huge opportunity for people looking for an easy, intuitive way to save money on their groceries,” says Jacky Ip, Frugi team member. “Our platform simplifies grocery price comparisons to help Canadians save more”.
Frugi started when the team pitched their idea to a panel of industry and faculty judges. MDM students are offered an opportunity to pursue their own ventures, and the team—which consisted of Tim Chan, Peggy Kwong, and Cherry Kwong at the time—presented a compelling business pitch that convinced the panel that they should pursue their idea further. Students are encouraged to pursue a start-up idea in the MDM and are given guidance and mentorship from faculty. They also have access to the vast ecosystem of partners available at Centre for Digital Media that can provide mentorship and industry knowledge.
“Prior to the panel, faculty provided a lot of advice and feedback that helped us deliver a successful pitch,” says Peggy. “Once we started working on our idea, faculty gave us very useful technical suggestions and even introduced us to industry experts who provided connections and guidance.”
“The Entrepreneurship elective class gave us all the knowledge we needed to start a venture, like leadership, marketing, finance, organizational growth, funding, commercialization, and what investors look for in start-ups,”, says Tim. “One of the most important lessons we learned in the MDM is to not be afraid to change your pivot, which we did three times!”
Frugi also received the Accelerate Entrepreneur grant from MITACS, a non-profit national research organization, that will further help develop their platform. This grant is awarded to student and postdoctoral entrepreneurs to achieve commercialization goals, and further develop the research or technology at the core of their start-up business.
“We hope Frugi can become a platform people use everyday. We are aiming towards 1000 active users within Metro Vancouver after our public launch,” says Jacky.
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