Capital Raising, Acquisitions and Crowdfunding; ESSEC Entrepreneurs Are in Demand

An 8-figure capital raising, valuation at several billion, upscaling, internal expansion, mergers & acquisitions, etc. Spotlight on some of the key operations by ESSEC entrepreneurs in recent weeks.

4 ESSEC on Next40

The third edition of Next40, the official State index of French Tech’s most promising nuggets, includes 4 ESSEC start-ups. Criteria for inclusion in the ranking includes valuation of more than €1 billion, capital raising of more than €100 million, or an annual growth rate exceeding 30%.

Co-founded by Jonathan Benassaya (E06), the music streaming platform Deezer is a big-league player alongside Spotify and Apple Music, with 90 million titles on offer and 16 million users in more than 180 countries.

Created by Jonathan Cherki (E11), Contentsquare, the digital experience optimisation platform, entered the circle of French unicorns in just 10 years. It currently boasts more than 600 customers worldwide, 30% of which are Fortune 100 companies, in addition to 1,300 employees (soon to double) throughout its subsidiaries in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. 

Co-founded by Alexis Angot (E08), Ÿnsect has become the world leader in the breeding and transformation of insects into premium ingredients for plant and animal health and nutrition. The B Corp-certified company of 200 employees uses disruptive technology protected by some 300 patents from 30 families, and targets an annual turnover of €5 billion.

Co-founded by Guillaume Alary-Raisonnier (M08), the learning platform 360Learning provides its services to some 500,000 users worldwide and 1,300 companies including LVMH and Toyota. An established leader in France and with a solid grounding in the US, it currently has its sights on numerous acquisitions to boost its international expansion.

Capital raising

Co-managed by Victor Douek (E12), Sellsy has raised €55M to optimise its CRM suite with new functions for very small and small-to-medium businesses, conquer new markets in Europe and strengthen the human and sales support it offers customers and prospects. The start-up has announced the recruitment of 75 additional talents as of 2022, and 300 by 2025.

Six months after achieving unicorn status, Back Market is pursuing its trajectory and has raised an additional €450M, to reach a total valuation of €5.1 billion, the highest of all French Tech companies. Among the key players of this runaway success and media sensation is CFO Clément Petit (E08).

Launched by Norman Kolton (IMHI 14), Street Bangkok has raised €20M to boost its expansion. This high-end fast food chain, specialising in gourmet Thai and South-East Asian classics, has become one of the champions of “fast casual” in just a few years. (Click here to see the ESSEC Alumni article on Street Bangkok)

Created by Philippe Notton (EXEC MBA 08), SiPearl has obtained €17.5M in funding from the EIC Accelerator programme to develop microprocessors for future high-power European supercomputers. “We’re thus contributing to European sovereignty and addressing major scientific, industrial and societal challenges in the fields of medical research, energy and the fight against climate change.” 

Created by Doctor Philippe Bencteux (M15), the medtech Robocath has announced a €15M funding agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The aim is to develop a new generation of the company’s robot assistance solution to facilitate and secure interventional cardiology, and more particularly coronary angioplasty. “This type of operation is performed every 30 seconds throughout the world.” (Click here to see the ESSEC Alumni article on Robocath)

Co-founded by Yacine Achiakh (E14), Wisear has raised €2M to launch its wireless earphones and thought-controlled virtual reality headsets on the market. This futuristic solution is based on electrodes which detect the bioelectrical activity of the head and face. “This neuronal interface, which is faster, more private and more accessible than a touch-screen or vocal interface, can be integrated into the electronic devices currently on the market. The prototype is ready!” 

Created by Julien Mardas (M16), Buster AI has raised €2M for its artificial intelligence system which tracks down fake news. “We’re going to use this investment to hire talents, capture new users on our private beta and set out to conquer the financial sector.” 

Co-founded by Damien Cuny (M11), Kompozite has raised €1.4M for its digital platform which helps public works players to comply with new environmental regulations by identifying the best low carbon materials for their building projects. After 2 years of R&D, this latest step marks the start of its marketing. 

Co-founded by Tatiana Monseur (E16), Mohamed Abou Ali (E21) and INSERM professor Hafid Ait Oufella, Polygon Therapeutics has completed its first phase in the development of a new treatment for cardiovascular diseases, which significantly reduces damage to myocardial tissue, the main cause of adult death throughout the world.

Divestitures, acquisitions and partnerships

Alexandre Eruimy (E10), Managing Director of PrestaShop, has announced the acquisition of its e-commerce development solution for small-to-medium businesses by the Italian firm MBE Worldwide. In Stratégies magazine, he commented: “We focus on online sales, access to connection and marketing. MBE has a franchise network and is positioned closer to logistics, storage and customer service. We complement each other. With their 2,800 sites and 10 offices worldwide, we’ll gain new base customers and will be able to offer them a more integrated service approach.” 

Othmane Senhaji Rhazi (E17) has sold ZeClef to Gesti-Pro, France’s market leader in cleaning services. “Over the course of 3 years, we’ve experienced 3 turning points and have gone from virtual bankruptcy to an annual turnover of €3M, with more than 400 company customers, a fifth of which are CAC 40-listed. Following 3 takeover offers and 6 months of negotiations, we’re passing the torch to a historical player who will be able to develop our dual activity of cleaning services and product and equipment sales.” 

The panellist NielsenIQ has acquired FoxIntelligence, co-founded by Florian Cleyet-Merle (E11) and Louis Balladur (E16), and specialised in the data analysis of marketplaces and rapid home delivery players, to complete its analysis offer for the e-commerce and online sales sector.

Co-founded by Sébastien Worms (E11), the foodtech Vitaline, which offers a range of easy-to-eat and highly nutritional foods, is pursuing its development despite a shrinkage in the ready-to-eat market since the COVID-19 epidemic, with a roll-out in Monoprix, strong growth in web sales and the takeover of its Italian rival, Bivo. (Click here to see the ESSEC Alumni article on Vitaline)

Created by Tristan Verdier (E08), the platform Eventmaker is merging with Infopro Digital. Eventmaker’s support solution for the organisation of physical, virtual and hybrid corporate events, which digitalises registration procedures, networking actions and prospect generation, helped to organise more than 3,500 events for 2 million participants in 2021. “Thanks to this merger, we now have the means to become a European, even world leader in Event Tech.” (Click here to see the ESSEC Alumni article on Eventmaker)

Founded by Romain Clément (M18), Arcascience is integrating Future4Care, a new collective initiative between Sanofi, Générali, Orange and Cap Gemini for the industrialisation and up-scaling of e-health solutions. “We provide a new artificial intelligence model to identify and aggregate side-effect indications in all research documents and patient data. We’re currently using this model to gain clearer insight into COVID data, with very positive results.” 

Did you spot other ESSEC startups in the news recently? Let us know! 

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