What's up in our portfolio?
Emerging trends in retail and new commerce.
If you read our newsletter, you know our culture. We don’t talk much about ourselves. But after all, why not talk about the entrepreneurs we work with?
So, for this pre-summer edition, we have decided to open the book of our portfolio by sharing some recent news and figures and adding a little energy to the ambient weather… ☀️ Let’s go!
🚀 Mediarithmics [SaaS - Data Marketing] : The seasoned duo of entrepreneurs composed of Gilles & Stéphane just reached 12m€ ARR through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and product development, including Audience Extension (the use of retailers' data within media sites) and CRM Onboarding (enabling an advertiser to match its database with that of an advertising space vendor). What’s next? CEO’s answer here: “We will be making several acquisitions, aiming for annual revenues of €50 million”.
📉 Dataïads [SaaS - Martech] : Don’t get me wrong, the emoji on the left is not the company’s trend (3x in 12 months) but the outlook of the acquisition costs after customers implement the Dataïads post-click solution. One recent example is the success story with Fnac-Darty: +28% ROAS! What’s even more impressive is the fact that Fnac-Darty is one of the more sophisticated and tech-savvy leaders in the industry.
🥖 Tranché [Consumer - New Retail] : Augustin & Marie, the founders of Tranché, have opened their 3rd store in the heart of Paris near La Place des Vosges. Very chic. They know the recipe: Tier-1 location, beautiful shop, good and fresh products, organic bread, local sourcing, and always a big French smile! And this is just the beginning…
♻️ Smala [Consumer - Second Hand] : The company just reached profitability, hats off to the team! Like Vinted (who announced similar news last month), Smala is the first French player in the second-hand market to reach profitability. Of course, they don’t exactly play in the same league, but Smala has shown that a fully integrated model in the second-hand market is viable, bringing great value to consumers with first-hand customer experience while still turning a profit.
📦 Acolyt [Logistics] : Some investors call it an “unsexy” business. Well, I can tell you that the numbers are anything but unsexy. The company is in a profitable growth mode (above the famous “rule of 40” - coined by Brad Feld in 2015) and is now accelerating further. The logistics market isn’t for the faint of heart, it doesn’t forgive wobbly execution but rewards excellence immensely.
📱 Easypicky [SaaS - IA] : Not a day goes by without crazy news about AI, and not a day goes by without skeptics begging for a “real business use case, please 🙄”. Well, Easypicky is a good one. Working with world-class leaders (L’Oréal, Nestlé, Unilever, Mars, Henkel,…), they have just released a success story with Nestlé. Results are clear at every level of the organization from field operators to top management: easy-to-use, reliable, and a huge boost in productivity. Bonus: you can track your competitors’ products. When AI meets business needs, magic happens.
📊 Datahawk [SaaS - Data Analytics] : Following its upmarket repositioning, Datahawk has deepened its partnerships with the ecosystem, including Debt, one of the leading tech and marketing agencies (team of 4,000 digital specialists in 30+ locations). They are organizing a webinar in June to explain how an advanced analytics dashboard can transform an ecommerce strategy. If you are considering selling on Amazon, this is a must.
🤖 Ouidrop [Robotics] : After successfully installing their first “click & collect” machines in Paris, the company has recently demonstrated a second use-case by signing multiple deals with top French food retailers to automate their “drives”. If, like us, you live in a city, you may not realize how profound (>7,000), growing (11% annual growth for the past 10 years), and important (12bn€ in sales) is this retail channel. Another French exception.
⭐ Bonus: Cabaïa (one of the first French ONVBs). Even though we exited in 2023, we’ll always love them. We’re still impressed by their growth (from 0 to 100m€ in sales) and the commerce rockstars they are. Last week they opened a 34th store in Le Touquet!
Many THANKS and CONGRATS to all the founders and teams putting in so much energy and hard work 💪
10 RESSOURCES ABOUT COMMERCE (But not only)
➡️ Marketing isn't the only way to revive a brand
➡️ Xiaohongshu (the Chinese Instagram) deep-dive
➡️ TikTok Aims To Create 1 Billion Shopping Influencers
➡️ A glitch in the matrix of online shopping
➡️ YCombinator: here are the 21 consumer AI companies of the last batch
➡️ The Two Laws Of Startup Physics
➡️ LLMs: Introduction for “dummies” + an investing framework
➡️SaaS Valuation Multiples: 2015-2024
➡️ Consumer Trends 2024 by Dan Frommer [PDF]
➡️ Galion : “Guide des procédures collectives” [PDF]
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About us
Spring Invest is a European investment fund dedicated to companies that are shaping the future of commerce. We champion doers who build innovative companies making commerce better, from enabling technologies to new commerce models and everything in between. More info about our investment thesis 👉 here.
