Contentsquare, a new French unicorn with a 190 million dollar round
ContentSquare, a startup Seed4Soft backed at seed stage in 2012, has just announced a 190 million dollar Series D, in order to invest massively in innovation and accelerate its international growth
Link to the article: https://www.frenchweb.fr/french-tech-contentsquare-nouvelle-licorne-francaise-avec-un-tour-de-table-de-190-millions-de-dollars/400379#gsc.tab=0
Contentsquare, a specialist in analysing how visitors behave on sites and apps, has announced a funding round of 190 million dollars that makes the startup a new unicorn, a company valued at more than a billion dollars. "Contentsquare's value reaches one billion dollars" in this deal, a spokesperson for Bpifrance, which is taking part in the round, told AFP.
The deal is one of the largest in France since the start of the year, behind EcoVadis in January (CSR rating agency, 200 million dollars), but ahead of ManoMano, also in January (DIY marketplace, 125 million euros) and Back Market in May (refurbished phones, 110 million euros).
700 clients and 650 employees
The round marks the entry into Contentsquare's capital of the American fund BlackRock Private Equity Partners. "Most of the existing investors, namely Bpifrance, Canaan, Eurazeo Growth, GPE Hermes, Highland Europe, H14 and KKR," took part in the deal, Contentsquare said. The company has grown strongly in recent years. Its last funding round (60 million dollars) dated from January 2019.
Contentsquare, which today employs 650 people, 300 of them in France, sells software that analyses how visitors behave on a site (mouse movements or finger movements on screen, time spent on a page, movement within the site). The software then draws recommendations for the site's owner, with a view to maximising its conversion rate, that is, how inclined the visitor is to buy the goods or services on offer.
This mass of data makes it possible to compare each site's effectiveness against sites in the same sector, and to draw the best possible recommendations from it through artificial intelligence. "We have more than 700 clients and collect 10 billion user transactions every day," explained Jonathan Cherki, founder and managing director of Contentsquare.
A stock market listing, "a path we are considering"
France counts fewer than ten unicorns: Deezer, Blablacar, Doctolib, eFront and Dataiku, to which can be added the veterans OVH and Veepee and the Franco-American Kyriba. The traditional destiny of a unicorn is to be listed on the stock market once its success is well established. "It is definitely a path we are considering, if only to reach the operational excellence and maturity" that the status of a listed company requires, said Jonathan Cherki. But "there are still possibilities for private funding", even for a company that has reached unicorn status, he added.
According to Contentsquare's chief executive, the coronavirus crisis had no impact on the fundraising process. "What has happened over these last three months reinforces the importance of the digital channel," that is, the online sales Contentsquare exists to maximise, he said. "People started ordering online and will carry on doing so," he reckoned.
Contentsquare: the key facts
Founder: Jonathan Cherki Founded: 2012 Headquarters: Paris Business: a platform for optimising and analysing the user experience Headcount: 650 people
Funding: 190 million dollars in May 2020, 60 million dollars in January 2019…