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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