The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Feb 2024

Acwa builds robotic solutions for water and clean-water infrastructure, aiming to run robotic missions that gather asset-management data for utilities. The company says it is entering a new stage of growth and will use fresh capital to accelerate its path to market and deliver first robotic missions. Its LinkedIn post highlights eagerness from water utilities awaiting those deliveries. The announcement references the IMAGINE - H2020 project Aquatech. Acwa also noted that two historic investors, UI Investissement and CALAO FINANCE, are reinforcing their positions. Operating metrics (revenue/users) were not disclosed in the article.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2023

AquaTech Innovation builds a suite of wastewater treatment and reuse solutions covering the full water cycle, including product lines AquaCollect, AquaClear, AquaReUse (AquaPool, AquaGreen, AquaFlush) and the monitoring tool AquaData. The company positions itself to address low wastewater recycling rates in France and to serve customers such as cities, ports and tourism operators. Geneviève Marais is the founder and CEO. AquaTech plans to scale production, grow its team, and boost investment in research and development to create new solutions. The startup aims to establish itself as a reference player in wastewater recycling and target the global water-treatment market, which the article cites as worth $200 billion per year. Recently it completed a fundraising to support those growth plans.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2019

Herow provides a contextual engagement SaaS platform for mobile applications that uses location intelligence and everyday behaviors to drive user engagement. Its solution lets marketers and developers understand how, when and where apps are used, create user segments based on real-world moments, and deliver contextual notifications and in-app actions. The platform is built to protect personal user data and comply with GDPR and CCPA regulations. Herow was founded in 2007 and is led by CEO Laetitia Gazel Anthoine. The company has offices in Paris, New York, Barcelona and San Francisco. It recently closed new funding to support deployment and expansion of its contextual engagement offering.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2018

Lucky Cart offers an AI-based SaaS platform that personalises promotions for retailers and suppliers to optimise the performance of their promotional investments. The platform analyses transactional data using artificial intelligence and econometrics to personalise the promotional mechanic, eligibility thresholds, and validity periods of offers. The company says retailers and suppliers in France dedicate more than €10 billion to promotion each year and that 61% of promotions are a loss. Lucky Cart operates in France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom and serves more than 150 clients, including Intermarché, Casino, Carrefour, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Henkel and Nestlé. The startup says its approach can deliver a return on investment of "4 or 53" while improving customer loyalty through personalised buying experiences. The recent funding will be used to invest in R&D and deploy the solution to key actors in the grocery sector in France. Lucky Cart is a French startup that provides a "promogaming" promotional solution for online retailers. Its product places a small lottery on the order confirmation page, letting customers play for a chance to win a refund equal to their shopping cart. The company says shoppers prefer that game-based option over small discounts, helping merchants create appealing promotions while controlling operating costs. Major French retailers such as Cdiscount and PriceMinister already use the solution. Lucky Cart has raised €1.6 million from Partech Ventures, Kima Ventures, Venture Pleiades, Fa Diese and Edenred and plans to use the funding to expand across Europe, grow its sales team and develop a SaaS platform. The fundraising and strategy were discussed by founder Cyril Marchal in an interview with Frenchweb.fr.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2017

ForePaaS offers a SaaS multi-cloud, automated platform to scale data analytics applications while keeping control over the intelligence produced from customers' data. The platform is designed for business teams and integrates and automates data management and application management to enable quick initial deployments and stepwise optimization. It addresses data coherence, availability, local particularities and spikes in activity through built-in operational feedback. The company lists customers including Total, Saint-Gobain Group and Cinémas Gaumont Pathé. ForePaaS said it raised $10M in Series A funding and will use the proceeds to accelerate activities in Europe and the USA and to strengthen R&D. Management plans to double headcount, increasing the workforce to 80 employees by the end of 2018.