My 15 angel investments of 2021 (and a list of 50+ top business angels to seek money & advice from in 2022).
In retrospect, 2018 and 2019 were tough years of building Batch . In 2018, we accelerated our shift toward the enterprise market which led us to restructure the company the next year. Then going through Covid in 2020. Then raising our first 20 M€ round in 2021.
All of this left me little time to focus on my other passion—angel investing.
But I’ve always seen angel investing as a natural extension of my career as an entrepreneur and I couldn’t make a comprehensive list of all the benefits it has brought me over the year.
I did my first investment back in 2011 and backed more than 40 companies since with a few lucky exits, investing as little as 5 K€ and as high as 100 K€ with an average check size of 25 K€.
A decade later, angel investing has helped me broaden my perspectives, gave me a chance to learn some of the best-kept secrets of the game of business (while helping me understand better the mindset of professional investors) and extended the reach and influence of my network dramatically.
Now with the post-Covid era in full swing many close friends are rolling the entrepreneurial dice for a second time—most of them triggered by an urge to get building again, the feeling that the card deck has been reshuffled entirely and the strong likelihood of an unprecedented decade of growth ahead for the tech sector at large.
Most of them are successful repeat entrepreneurs who get backed almost instantly.
Alongside them, rolls an ever-impressive, ever-mature generation of younger founders going at it for the first time. Not only are they benefiting from what feels like ? The Ultimate Playbook ? but also from a frantic early stage market. There's more angels than ever out there (and the most proficient ones have assembled into hyper-active ? seed clubs ?), everyone and his mother is now a ? scout ?, agressive early stage funds are crossing all European frontiers and larger local VCs are going down and down the food chain to place ever-earlier bets while US VCs are more and more present in Europe through local offices and/or alliances.
As a consequence, the market has heated up dramatically in the last 24 months and it’s not uncommon to get deals done over email or WhatsApp in just a few days—if not hours (very optimal for the busy CEO) and at nuts valuations (less optimal ??).
With no signs of cooling down anytime soon it may feel crazy at times, but on the flip side it's also giving talented founders more options and leverage than ever to build great and far-reaching companies...
...so what could possibly go wrong? :)
Without further ramblings, here’s a list of what I believe are 15 really cool companies you should keep an eye on in 2022, and then a list of 50+ top business angels I have co-invested with in the past and that I would recommend you seek money & advice from.
#1 Tikino ????
Tikino builds an educational device for kids that lets them broadcast visual and musical stories anywhere and whenever using a soft blue light projector.
Their initial crowdfunding campaign overdelivered by 600% and the first devices will ship in 2022 with parents reaching out continually for pre-orders.
Founders:?Laurène Altmayer , Aliénor Bouvier , Thiphaine Le Roy .
Funding status: undisclosed pre-Seed round.
#2 MerciApp ????
The brainchild of scrappy entrepreneur Arthur Ollier and a team of hardcore linguists with 15+ years of R&D under their belt, you could call MerciApp the ? french Grammarly ?.
It is an online assistant that integrates everywhere, from Gmail to Notion, and makes your writing outstanding effortlessly. Users are ecstatic and revenue is growing super fast.
Founders: Arthur Ollier ,
Funding status: 850K€ Seek round (ISAI, angel investors).
#3 Quartz ????
While the french B2C insurtech market is on fire these days with well-funded players such as Luko and Leocare, no one has cracked the B2B market yet.
Quartz is building just that, with a powerful platform for companies of all sizes to manage and negotiate all their corporate insurance contracts in one central place.
Founders: Jordan Broussous , Laurent Cuzin , Félix Rouillard.
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#4 Resilience ????
When my friend and maverick entrepreneur Celine Lazorthes told me she was not only starting a new business (on the heels of her massive Leetchi/Mangopay success) but also teaming up with another superstar founder, Jonathan Benhamou (founder of Peopledoc), it really just took me a few seconds to make up my mind.
Resilience is building a new kind of platform to fight cancer and is off to an uber-impressive start.
Founders: Celine Lazorthes , Jonathan Benhamou .
Funding status: 5M€ Seed round (Singular, angel investors).
#5 Midnight Trains ????
Similar to yoga or keto diets, folks who know Midnight Trains simply won’t shut up about it. My friends Adrien and Romain are building nothin less than a new network of sleeper trains aiming to provide European travellers with an alternative to low cost jet flights.
Rarely have I encountered a project with such hype and passion around it and the founders ability to execute against such a complex vision has been quite impressive so far.
Founders: Adrien Aumont , Romain Payet .
Funding status: 1.3M€ pre-Seed round (angel investors).
#6 Le Fourgon ????
I’m sooo excited about what Le Fourgon is building. Similar to Flaschenpost in Germany (company was acquired for €1bn after just 4 years of operations), Le Fourgon is building a delivery network for all types of locally-sourced beverages. They are targeting suburban areas using advanced dispatch technology, a slick e-commerce mobile app, electric vehicles and recyclable glass containers to deliver a seamless customer experience. Check out their Instagram !
Founder: Charles Christory .
Funding status: 2M€ pre-Seed round (angel investors).
#7 Maki People ????
There are many entrepreneurs that I admire, and a few ones that I envy: Maxime Legardez is one of them as the prick seems to got it all: intelligence, energy, vision, friendship, family, success, love and a ravaging sense of humour.
领英推荐
After selling his prior company Everoad to European unicorn Sennder, he's now onto reinventing hiring with Maki People.
Founders:?Maxime Legardez , Paul Louis Caylar , Benjamin Chino .
Funding status: €6M Seed round (Frst Capital, Global Founders, angel investors).
#8 Mediflash ????
Mediflash builds a digital platform for healthcare temp workers. Léopold & friends are the typical new generation founders, jumping fresh off school into their first venture and executing really well with delighted users and a fast-growing marketplace.
Founders: Léopold Treppoz , Maxime Klein , Laurent Ros and Stanislas Chastel .
Funding status: €1,7M Seed round (Firstminute Capital, business angels).
#9 Omena (formerly Wempo) ????
The team at Omena is building a health companion app for menopaused women. While it’s early days and a true niche market I’m always interested by what can happen when talented founders target very specific markets with a community-first approach.
Founders: Mathilde Neme , Jane Douat , Hahyeon Park .
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#10 DNTRO ????
When long-time friend and serial entrepreneur Jean-Sebastien Cruz told me he was relocating to Brazil to launch DNTRO, a new subscription-based vitamins supplements startup I just couldn’t resist joining in.
This space has heated up considerably in the US lately—with Bayer acquiring pioneer Care/of last year for $225M—and the thesis here is that the model will transfer extremely well to the Brazilian market.
Founder: Jean-Sebastien Cruz .
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#11 Finnt ????
A cool DeFi project operating in stealth mode. Can’t say much right now but keep an eye on this one!
Founders: N/A.
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#12 Numary ????
A YC-backed company, Numary helps companies centralize financial transactions and reconcile payments involving multiple providers which remains a nightmare problem for many web-based businesses and C2C marketplaces.
The founder, Clément, was lead payments engineer at Selency and knows the space in & out. He's super impressive and on the look-out for a late business co-founder.
Founder: Clément Salaün .
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#13 Pyxo ????
Pyxo builds the OS to operate returnable containers at scale targeting the fast-food and restaurant industry.
They have already attracted large names such as McDonald or Sodexo and their go to market timing couldn’t be better since ? loi AGEC ? will ban disposable packaging for the fast food industry starting January 2023.
Founders: Benjamin Péri , Fran?ois des Beauvais .
Funding status: 7M€ Seed round (Eurazeo, Five Seasons Ventures, business angels).
#14 Figures ????
As we struggled to obtain accurate market data for fair compensation at Batch last year, our HR team started becoming obsessed with Figures: a data and market measurement firm for everything HR.
It got me curious and I reached out to the founder Virgile right as he was putting the final touches to the company’s initial Seed round.
Founders: Virgile Raingeard .
Funding status: undisclosed Seed round.
#15 Reveal (formerly Sharework) ????
Pretty much the same story happened with Reveal: a software our team started using obsessively at Batch back in 2020.
With its ? Who shares wins ? baseline, Reveal has become the backbone for all our channel partners efforts, letting us share leads & opportunities anonymously with friendly companies. A truly game changer product for any B2B SaaS company.
Founders: Simon Bouchez , Perrine El Khoury , Gautier Machelon .
Funding status: €3.8M Seed round (LocalGlobe, Kernel Investments, business angels).
And that’s it for 2021!
I you’re raising funds for your startup in 2022, I’d love to hear about it (just reach out via DM ??). And if you plan to be on the road for a pre-Seed / Seed round anytime soon here's a list of 50+ top business angels I would recommend reaching out to (merely a list of good people I've actually seen doing cool deals in the past—not an exhaustive one).
Cofounder @ folk CRM | Forbes 30U30
1 年très jolie liste, ca serait encore plus canon d'avoir ca comme une liste folk - plus simple pour n'importe qui de dupliquer, les contacter, les mettre dans un pipe, etc. Voilà la mienne par ex: https://app.folk.app/shared/Folk-Current-angels-Q6WQ8aXqsTXfF4U67RJckiZgef1Gjm1Y
Data analyst | Groupama G2S
2 年Axelle Donot Regarde qui est premier ????
?? J'aide les TPE/PME à améliorer et sécuriser leur gestion RH | RHunning, accélérateur de projets RH !
2 年Farida Poulain
Co-Founder Tiller (now SumUp) & others I Angel investor
2 年Je rentre de vacances et je me fais contacter par pleins d'inconnus sur Linkedin qui me disent "j'ai lu l'article de Simon et donc je reach out". Mais de quel article parlent ils tous ?? ??. Merci Simon, je viens de tomber dessus ! Joli post, merci pour la mention ?? et hate d'accompagner davantage d'entrepreneurs ensemble