In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, hosts Barry O’Kane and Jo Weston talk with Frans Biegstraaten, co-founder of BIYU, a modular rental, subscription and PAAS platform helping businesses build circular systems that scale.
BIYU started as a consumer rental service in Amsterdam, offering same-day delivery on everything from drills to electric bikes. When the business had to pivot, Frans and his team transformed their operational know-how and internal software into a SaaS product that now supports circular businesses across Europe.
✨ In this episode we learn about:
• The journey from consumer rental startup to multi-tenant SaaS provider
• How BIYU’s tech manages repair, refurbishment, and reverse logistics.
• Why integrating circular systems with existing tech like Shopify and Firmhouse matters.
• The challenges and rewards of building circular tech through experimentation.
• How BIYU enables brands to pilot circular models before full adoption.
📌 Mentioned in this episode:
BIYU – www.biyu.world
Shopify - https://www.shopify.com/
Firmhouse - https://www.firmhouse.com/
👤 About our guest:
Frans Biegstraaten is co-founder of BIYU, a circular technology company based in the Netherlands. BIYU helps rental and Product-as-a-Service companies manage everything from asset tracking to refurbishment using its modular SaaS platform.
Frans Biegstraaten on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fwbiegstraaten/
🌍 About HappyPorch
HappyPorch is a purpose-driven software engineering consultancy focused on the circular economy.
Learn more: https://www.happyporch.com
💌 Subscribe to HappyPorch Circular News
HappyPorch Circular News is our monthly newsletter for people working in and around the circular economy and technology.
Subscribe at: https://www.happyporch.com/newsletter/
🎙 Explore the Circular Economy Podcasts Guide
We’ve created something new: the Circular Economy Podcasts Guide. After 9 seasons of HappyPorch Radio and years of discovering other brilliant shows on circularity, we realised the podcast space needed a central, searchable place to explore the best voices in circular innovation.
Browse at: https://circulareconomypodcasts.guide/
▶️ Listen and subscribe:
Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, iHeart, Pocket Casts — or wherever you get your podcasts.
Visit https://www.happyporchradio.com to explore more episodes.
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