Imagined by a young company from Nantes, this application is attracting more and more cities in France. Public toilets in the municipalities are also listed there.
Le Figaro Nantes
This is a situation shared by many individuals. Faced with a pressing desire, head to a bar or a shop to ask them to use the little corners. It is also not uncommon to be rebuffed. With ICI Toilettes, this should no longer happen. Imagined by a young growth from Nantes, this free application “revolutionizes access to the toilet free in cities » in his own words.
Thomas Herquin, co-founder and director, launched in 2019, after participating in a hackathon, a competition organized in Nantes. The goal of its digital product is to “allow access to sanitary facilities for all in public spaces”. A map thus lists already existing public toilets, but also partner merchants, who open the doors to their toilets.
Engagement RSE
“Traders, bars, brasseries are already welcoming people [dans leurs cabinets]. They do this because they consider themselves to be more than just a drinking establishment. We have this desire to promote retailers in this CSR commitment”explains the manager. In exchange, traders receive compensation of 100 euros per month and sanitary towels and protection to help their customers. Opening their doors can also be an asset: “70% of partner merchants recognize an impact on turnover”even though individuals are not obliged to consume.
Ultimately, it is an innovation of “common sense” for Thomas Herquin. Without wanting to denigrate public toilets, which he sees as complementary, he nevertheless highlights their imperfections. Expensive (30,000 euros per year), consuming water (17 liters per passage), they do not appeal to women: 98% of them are reluctant to use them (according to a report from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health of 2020).
Grenoble, Montreuil, Angoulême…
After an experiment in her hometown of Nantes, where the contract was not renewed (read box below), the “solidarity and social start-up” works with cities such as Angoulême, Grenoble and Montreuil. In Paris, ICI Toilettes was selected for the Olympic Games and discussions are underway to make the contract permanent. Because for communities, this has a cost. The economic model of the application is largely based on this: “we cost between 10 and 12 times less” than public toilets, highlights the co-creator, who also talks about the shift “ecological, economical and inclusive” that this allows. In 2025, ICI Toilettes, led by the young innovative company Urban Services, hopes to establish partnerships with around ten cities, allowing it to become profitable.
“No one is going to become a multi-millionaire”however, immediately warns Thomas Herquin. If it was his will, he would have stayed in the «start-up» Canadian where he previously practiced. Conversely, the entrepreneur insists: “the goal is to live properly and make an impact”. Thus, he is satisfied that “cities of the right and the left participate in the system”. In Germany, the Nette Toilette model has already existed for more than 15 years.
To find other sources of income, Urban Services now offers communities the opportunity to couple the ICI Toilettes application with an ICI-T management platform: “unprecedented added value to manage the city’s policy on public toilets”. Equipment problems are reported in real time to the authorities thanks to anonymous reports from users. “We are the Waze of the toilets”laughs the founder. From November 19 to 21, the company will be present at the mayors and communities fair in Paris, where it won the Social and Solidarity Innovation Prize two years ago.
