Partech Newsletter: Adapting & helping in uncertain times
April 7th, 2020
Since early 2020 with the start of the Covid-19 situation, we have been watching its development closely and prepared to act. As a global investment team operating in Europe, the USA and Africa we understood early our responsibility to our portfolio companies, team members and the ecosystem as a whole.
We have been impressed by the reactivity and determination shown by our entrepreneurs during this period: quickly identifying the scale of the situation, they implemented adaptation plans and continue to update them daily. They were often amongst the first to care for their teams and require working from home weeks ago. Demonstrating amazing business creativity, they are moving fast to ensure long term financial stability of their companies.
We'll show you below 9 examples of how our portfolio companies prove they have what it takes to adapt quickly, think outside the box and demonstrate generosity and solidarity during a time when community and the human spirit are of critical importance!
We also wanted to take the opportunity to promote an initiative we've joined: a collective donation to provide 40,000 meals for caregivers in French hospitals that need them. You can join us and help too.
We know that the world after the coronavirus outbreak will be different. But there's a need and an opportunity for business now and we are hopeful that entrepreneurs seize every opportunity.
Stay safe!
The Partech Team
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New Portfolio Companies
Fintech Kyash have been successful in raising $45 Million in a Series C round co-led by Greenspring Associates and Goodwater Capital, and joined by Greyhound Capital, Altos Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Rahul Mehta, managing partner of DST Global, and Partech; demonstrating that even during a pandemic, companies can continue to thrive. Kyash is a challenger bank in Japan with full-stack banking technologies. Read more.
TerraPay announced that a consortium of investors, including Prime Ventures, Partech Africa, and management acquired the company for an undisclosed sum. In addition, the same investors, joined by IFC, invested $9.6 million in TerraPay to fund the company’s expansion. TerraPay provides payment infrastructure services that help more people around the world to transfer money quickly, safely, and affordably. Read more.
Kaizo raised $3 million to accelerate customer support productivity leveraging gamification & artificial intelligence for agents worldwide. The round was led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund, and Partech, with participation from several angel investors. Read more.
Wanted raised a pre-seed round of $1.8 million from Partech, Hoxton Ventures, Kima Ventures, Nicolas Dessaigne (CEO of Algolia) and Dominique Vidal (Partner of Index Ventures) among others last January to prove its concept. Wanted is on a mission to make salary offers agnostic to gender, race, sexual preference or religion and to help talent be paid what they deserve. Read more.
Companies Adapting to Life with the Coronavirus
Urban Sports Club have launched an online training platform with courses directly from their partner studios, available for all their members in Europe! They are calling for solidarity among their members and will continue to support their partners! Read more.
Kantox called on business leaders to Pay it Forward to the travel industry. To help restore business confidence, ease supply chain disruption, and boost cash flows, Kantox are pre-paying part of their 2020 travel budget to their trusted providers. Read more.
The COVID19 pandemic is threatening even the most well-equipped of hospitals. Lifen, over 3 days, created a remote monitoring platform for patients showing symptoms. They will leverage digital tech to remotely monitor home-bound patients. Read more.
Fully committed to helping mitigate the impact of the crisis on businesses, October announced measures to support European SMEs. Loans granted by October to SMEs in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany will enjoy a three-months freeze on capital repayment.
93% of lenders voted to support companies and their employees. Read more.
Customers are currently under a lot of stress. Mindsay have created a new bot which ensures that customers can easily access the information they need. It can automate and answer up to 80% of the questions customers have about COVID-19, including vouchers, cancellations, and the latest news, and can be live on a site in 24 hours. Read more.
Lalilo has chosen to share its online program for free with as many people as possible, including parents, so that each child can continue to progress in learning to read.
To ensure educational continuity and to be able to make its tool available to as many people as possible, Lalilo has taken exceptional measures in recent hours. Read more.
Happytal developed Hoptisoins, a service platform allowing access to a range of services: accommodation, transport, child care, food, grocery delivery, access to priority checkouts, home services etc. to facilitate the daily life of professionals mobilized on the COVID-19 wards. The service was developed free of charge with the Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris. Read more.
OpenIO is participating in the #OpenSolidarity initiative. The objective is to make technological solutions that enable remote cooperation during the health crisis available at no cost and with no commitment. OpenIO is using its expertise in data storage to benefit teachers, offering them a NextCloud space of 100 GB per user to store and share their educational resources and maintain the link with their students and colleagues. Read more.
Endless West is shifting production from its distillery to begin making World Health Organisation-approved hand sanitizers.
The two-ounce bottles will be donated to local restaurants and bars that remain open for delivery, so that employees can use them and distribute them to customers. Bulk quantities will be distributed to healthcare organizations and facilities. Read more.
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