2022 on Course For a Record Fundraising year?
2022 is off to a great start! Out of four new unicorns announced by La French Tech, the HEC Paris entrepreneurial community is already celebrating two! Discover our six French companies with unicorn status here. They were founded or co-founded by our HEC Alumni.
At the HEC Paris - Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, we have just revealed the amount raised by our HEC Alumni entrepreneurs in 2021 (2 397 355 K€). Already, we can announce record amounts raised in 2022!
What a start to the year!
Out of four new unicorn in France, the HEC Paris entrepreneur community is already celebrating two. Congratulations go to:
- Nicolas Cohen (HEC Entrepreneurs 2001) and his teams, their marketplace Ankorstore becomes the 22nd French unicorn with a fundraising of 250 million euro. Ankortore is the 5th unicorn of the HEC Paris community in France.
- Congratulations to Alexandre Prot (H.06) and his teams whose neo-bank Qonto raised €486M to recruit 1,500 talents and continues to accelerate. It becomes the 23rd French unicorn and the sixth of the HEC Paris community in France.
2021 has been a flourishing year for French Tech, with a record number of unicorns. France now has 24 startups valued at more than $1 billion, of which HEC Alumni founders represent 25%.
Around the world, nine unicorns have emerged from the HEC Paris community.
Unicorn companies in France
Mirakl is a French cloud-based ecommerce software company.
HEC Paris founder: Adrien Nussenbaum (H.01)
Valuation: 3.5 billion dollars
Retail/E-commerce
Learn more about Mirakl (in French)
Doctolib provides an online service for booking and managing medical appointments that connects patients and healthcare professionals.
Founder HEC Paris: Stanislas Niox-Chateau
Valuation: 1.4 billion dollars
HealthTech - MedTech
Cloud-based phone system and call centre platform.
Founder HEC Paris: Olivier Pailhes (H.99)
Valuation: $1 billion
software
B2B marketplace, Ankorstore is a platform that connects major brands and retailers. It connects independent retailers with a large choice of suppliers, giving them a way to expand their assortment more easily.
Founder HEC Paris: Nicolas Cohen (HEC Entrepreneurs 2001)
Valuation: $1.98 billion
Marketplace
Qonto presents itself as the European leader in financial management for SMEs and the self-employed. Without being a bank, the fintech helps simplify daily banking, financing, accounting and expense management.
Founder HEC Paris: Alexandre Prot (H.06)
Valuation: $4.9 billion
Assurance/Banque
Ivalua is a global provider of spend management solutions, its cloud-based software is used by procurement and finance organizations in large, global companies.
Founder HEC Paris: David Khuat-Duy (H06)
Valuation: $1 billion
International Unicorn Companies
Financial Services - Unlimited Cash Back on Payments
Founder HEC Paris: Renaud Laplanche (HEC/LBS MBA Finance 95)
US, California
Valuation $3.3 billion
Nature's Fynd is a Chicago-based food company that creates versatile alternative proteins to feed the world's growing population while preserving the planet.
Founder HEC Paris: Thomas Jonas H.93
Us, Chicago
Valuation:$4.6 billion
Visual AI for instant and accurate assessment.
In the event of an accident, our AI is there to help and speed up the recovery process.
Founder HEC Paris: Adrien Cohen H.08
England, US
Valuation: $1 billion
Ever more spectacular fundraising
From the HEC Paris ecosystem:
HEC Ecosystem - 2019: €900M
HEC Ecosystem - 2020: €1.2B
HEC Ecosystem - 2021: €2.4B
Summary table of fundraising activities of the HEC Paris community
Learn more about the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center