Emmanuel Macron was there with his little word of congratulations on social networks. A French start-up that enters the circle of unicorns is rare enough that the Head of State does not applaud at his birth. “Our new French unicorn comes to us from Montpellier! Because, yes, contrary to popular belief, start-ups are not only Parisian: they create jobs everywhere in the territory ”.
Based at the Village by CA in Montpellier (near Odysseum) Swile has just announced a fundraising of 200 million dollars with Softbank, one of the largest global Tech funds. This contribution should enable it to switch from a dimension of French leader in the field of employee service to that of a world leader. The angle of attack: the South American market and in particular Brazil.
One of the economic objectives set by Emmanuel Macron
Swile became the nineteenth French unicorn. A relatively closed circle in which appear companies with a capitalization greater than $ 1 billion and not listed on the stock exchange. With the company based in Montpellier, France returns to the height of Germany in number of unicorns, but remains largely behind the United Kingdom which has 33. In 2019, Emmanuel Macron had mentioned the desire to wear the number to 25, by 2025.
Swile impresses with the speed with which it has established itself in the meal voucher market “into which we have embarked with the desire to dematerialize it. Starting from zero, we took 13% market share in three years ”, details, for 20 minutes, its president and founder Loïc Soubeyrand.
“Become a card that employees use for all their types of expenses”
Then, from a meal voucher card, Swile (for Let’s Smile at Work, smile at work) quickly became an employee benefit card on which all the benefits granted by their companies are managed: meal vouchers, but also aid mobility, gift vouchers and soon holiday vouchers. 15,000 companies and 500,000 employees already use it on a daily basis
While waiting for the next stage of the rocket. “We want to turn it into an employee card, which employees will use for any type of expense, such as business expenses,” continues Loïc Soubeyrand.
“This unicorn status strengthens our credibility abroad”
As always, or almost, among innovative companies, the founder’s initial idea has evolved a lot. “Originally, I had imagined simplifying employees’ lunches through grouped lunch orders. The idea was that the more you ordered, the greater the discounts. But immediately, I realized that in order to make this platform work, you first had to tackle the means of payment. The first restaurateur I met said to me: “Okay, but 70% of my turnover, I do it in meal vouchers. “Only in paper at the time”
This development obviously appeals to investors. “Becoming a unicorn is not an end in itself, but one step among many in our development. An important step, because it allows us to reinforce our credibility, to show guarantees of assurance to our customers in particular with the partners abroad. “