alocalo, founded in 2021 in Friedrichsthal in Saarland, wanted to win online shoppers back for local shops. Its browser plug-in recognised the product a user was looking at on sites such as Amazon and showed, within a second, nearby shops that stocked it, with their location and contact details.
The European Innovation Council committed €2,220,750 to a €3.17 million project, planned from October 2022 to September 2024, to develop the "self-learning AI platform" behind the plug-in. On 20 September 2023 alocalo filed for insolvency. The Saarbrücken local court opened proceedings on 1 November 2023, and the administrator said "market penetration had not progressed sufficiently to generate revenue", according to Verlag INDat. CORDIS records the project as "terminated on 7 December 2023".
Company file
- Legal entity
- alocalo GmbH, HRB 107504 (Saarbrücken), Friedrichsthal
- Founded
- 2021
- Product
- Browser add-on and app redirecting online shoppers to local retailers
- EIC project
- Planned 1 Oct 2022 to 30 Sep 2024; terminated 7 Dec 2023
- Insolvency
- Filed 20 Sep 2023; opened 1 Nov 2023, case 61 IN 53/23
- EIC funding
- Grant first
What Happened to alocalo
The insolvency administrator reported that alocalo had about 30 employees, was still growing and depended on outside money, and that efforts to raise more liquidity had failed. Most staff had left before proceedings opened, so the business could not continue; he hoped to sell "the idea behind alocalo" and said interested parties had come forward. With the opening of proceedings, the EU grant could no longer be drawn. The regional news site Blaulichtreport Saarland later asked how experts could have misjudged the start-up so badly. No sale of the technology has been announced.
The Technology: A Detour Sign on Amazon
The CORDIS objective describes an AI that identifies the product on an e-commerce page and "suggests local retailers who provide the searched article", with next-day delivery or in-store pickup. It cited the closure of 122,677 retail businesses in the EU between 2016 and 2018 as the problem it would address.
What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The project promised "100% product supply transparency and smart redirection from e-commerce platforms to local retail". CORDIS publishes no results or report beyond the project description, and the project ended with the termination 14 months in. How much of the grant had been paid by then is not stated.
- AI redirection platformNot deliveredProject terminated.
- Revenue from retailersNone"Not progressed sufficiently".
- Public resultsNoneNo report on CORDIS.
The Money
alocalo's accounts are not publicly displayed. The Blaulichtreport article put its EU subsidy at €2.3 million after it prevailed against more than 1,100 applicants. The insolvency means the undrawn part of the grant was never paid; what was paid before September 2023 is not public.
What Is Not Known
Questions for the EIC
How much of the €2.22 million was paid out, whether any of it will be recovered from the insolvency estate, and whether the EIC's evaluation considered how alocalo would reach users are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC chose alocalo over more than a thousand applicants to help Europe's local retailers compete with the big platforms. The company collapsed within a year of starting the project, before its product had found enough users.
What the project promised
An AI platform redirecting online shoppers to local retail across Europe.
What the record shows
Insolvency after 12 months, a terminated project and no published results.
The Verdict
Selected, then gone
alocalo was insolvent a year into its EIC project. The EU's record of what the grant bought is empty.
alocalo's insolvency administrator and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published reports, linked throughout.
