Wired UK – September 2019

079

PARIS

‘THERE ARE NO

PROPTECH UNICORNS

COMING OUT

OF EUROPE. WE WILL

WORK HARD

TO CHANGE THAT’

BENOIT DUPONT,

CEO, WEMAINTAIN

Ynsect

Since 2011, Ynsect has

been breeding insects

like the molitor, a small,

common beetle whose

larvae are known as

mealworms. “We wanted

to help meet the rising

demands of global

protein consumption

• which is predicted to
  surge by 52 per cent
  between 2007 and
  2030,” explains CEO
  Antoine Hubert. The
  startup has developed
  “farm-hills”, low-
  footprint vertical farms,
  for molitor breeding
  that mimic the complex
  structures built by
  insects in the wild.
  ynsect.com

By applying AI to the

problem of insurance

fraud detection,

Shift has developed

Force – software that

automatically detects

and flags up fraudulent

insurance claims, and is

currently used by more

than 70 insurers around

the world. “Insurers

are actively looking for

ways to change the way

consumers think about

insurance and insurance

companies,” says

CEO and co-founder

Jeremy Jawish.

“We believe that our

technology fits perfectly

into those initiatives.”

shift-technology.com

Fretlink

Sqreen Shift

Paul Guillemin was a

manager at a digital

agency when the

owner of a trucking

company asked him

to develop software

for his business. “The

road freight market

was very fragmented,”

says Guillemin – but

he created a solution.

Fretlink, founded in

2015, provides a digital

platform for the freight

industry, supporting

more than 400

companies, including

Procter & Gamble,

McBride and Nestlé.

The startup raised a

€25m series B round in

April 2019. fretlink.com

Former Apple offensive

security specialist

Pierre Betouin left to

found Sqreen, a security

management startup,

in 2015 with Jean-

Baptiste Aviat. It uses

microagents embedded

in applications to identify

and automatically protect

against threats in real

time. With no software

code modifications,

Sqreen can be installed

and protecting web

applications in under five

minutes – it’s used by

more than 500 companies.

In April, it closed a $14m

Series A funding round

led by Greylock Partners.

sqreen.com

WeMaintain

The traditionally

uncompetitive market

of elevator maintenance

is being disrupted by

WeMaintain. “If you look

at elevator companies

globally, the eight

biggest in the world

makes a billion dollars

in revenue and no one

knows about them,”

explains Benoit Dupont,

CEO of WeMaintain.

Founded in 2017 by

Dupont, Jade Francine

and Tristan Foureur,

this digital elevator

service connects

property managers such

as Allianz Real Estate,

Groupama Immobilier

and AXA to elevator

mechanics, allowing

them to run their own

business autonomously.

In April 2019,

WeMaintain raised €7m

from Idinvest Partners

and RAISE Ventures to

expand across Europe

and Asia. “There are no

proptech unicorns out

of Europe. We will work

to change that,” Dupont

says. wemaintain.com

WeMaintain co-founders Benoit Dupont,

Jade Francine and Tristan Foureur

Ninth

Paris’ place in Startup Genome’s 2019 Top Global Startup

Ecosystems report, up two places from 2017. Berlin is tenth;

London is joint third and fourth with Beijing

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