Feedback: eFounders start-up studio establishes itself as a unicorn factory

The Parisian start-up incubator eFounders has just revealed the results of its activity since its launch in 2011. Its results are very positive, allowing it to establish itself as a driving force for French innovation and to pursue its mission as a supporter of future projects. A success that can be counted in fantastic animals: 3 unicorns and 1 centaur and a failure rate at its lowest.

FACTS

• Since its launch just over 10 years ago, the Paris-based incubator has launched 34 start-ups. They have raised nearly $400 million in total funding to develop innovative concepts, original ideas born in the start-up studio, before being implemented by entrepreneurs recruited for this purpose.

• These include successful FinTechs such as Spendesk, UpFlow, Swan and YouSign.

• The start-up studio has even seen the growth of three unicorns, namely the business telephony specialist Aircall and the business expense management specialists Front and Spendesk. Aircall, for its part, is also considered a centaur, i.e. a SaaS company that generates more than 100 million dollars in annual revenue.

• In terms of revenue generated, of the 19 start-ups currently active in the eFounders portfolio :

  • 3 have annual recurring revenue between $20 and $100 million,

  • 3 have annual recurring revenue of between $2 million and $20 million,

  • and 11 have annual recurring revenue of less than $2 million.

• eFounders currently has over 1,000 employees in France, Belgium, the United States and Germany, with offices in Paris, San Francisco, New York and Berlin.

CHALLENGES

• A guarantee of stability in the storm: eFounders emphasises its very low failure rate, estimated at 6%; only two start-ups, incubated within its studio, have ceased their activity since 2011. This result allows eFounders to assert that an entrepreneur is 10,000 times more likely to create a unicorn within its incubator than independently. This stability is reassuring in a rather turbulent context for start-ups at present. It is also the result of a promising concept: focusing on BtoB software companies, which create recurring annual revenues and are more likely to be profitable.

• Exponential growth: If, at the beginning of its activities, eFounders allowed the creation of one start-up per year, since 2016, the incubator has launched 4 to 5 new players each year.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Innovation support centres such as incubators, start-up accelerators and other innovation villages have multiplied in France in recent years. After an initial surge in popularity, driven in particular by banks such as BNP Paribas, more independent structures have been set up.

• Today, references such as Station F, EuraTechnologies or eFounders have established themselves as undisputed and effective drivers alongside institutions such as Bpifrance, or more recently, the ACPR