ESSEC Entrepreneurs Are Off the Charts

There were sunny days in store for ESSEC entrepreneurs despite the autumn weather, with three rounds of capital raising and an acquisition valued in the millions over the last few months!

Founded by Sylvain Gasc (C15) and Dorian Ciavarella, Hivency is a platform where brands and micro-influencers can meet. The platform has 50,000 members in 130 countries, and raised €2.5m to recruit 30 staff and expand across Europe, mainly in Spain, Germany, and Italy. The aim? To reach 500,000 influencers and 100,000 campaigns by 2020.

Launched by Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit (E16), Timothée Mével and Casimir de Hauteclocque, HelloZack is a platform that makes it easier to sell second-hand Apple products. It raised €1.2m to roll out nationally across France before taking on the rest of Europe. The start-also plans to develop its services to buy and sell products in batches.

Founded by Jean Moreau (E07) and Baptiste Corvel, Phénix is a leader in the circular economy and the management of unsold stock and food waste. It raised €15m to accelerate its international development, launch new digital services, and expand into managing other kinds of waste.

Founded by Loïc Moisand (E06) and Thibault Hanin (E06), Synthesio is a company that specialises in monitoring and analysing what people are saying about brands on social media, and was acquired by Ipsos for $50m. With this acquisition, the French group plans to bolster its ability to glean useful interpretations from data by 2021, as part of its “Total Understanding” plan.