How start-ups are adapting to the coronavirus crisis

With the coronavirus crisis, the development of many start-ups came to a halt.

But some of them have nonetheless managed to succeed by reviewing their model, or by positioning themselves in growing economic sectors.

“The crisis was a complicated period for everyone. But we see that agile start-ups, which can change their model very easily and reinvent themselves overnight, have even been able to take advantage of the situation to create new businesses. Overall, the start-up ecosystem is doing very well, "Roxanne Varza, boss of Station F, a start-up incubator located in Paris, assured Monday on Europe 1.

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The example of a start-up in the travel industry

For companies in the travel industry, the coronavirus crisis has been particularly violent.

The start-up Tarmac Technologies, in the aeronautics sector, had to completely revise its model to survive.

"This start-up, which works with the travel industry, helped before the crisis to manage service providers working on a stopover plane. With deconfinement, it is starting to create new services with everything these service providers have to put in place. in place for the coronavirus. So it's almost a whole different market, "says Roxanne Varza.

However, "we have not really seen a completely different model being created, except for solutions against the coronavirus", continues the director of Station F. "There are no new markets, but we sees start-ups reinventing themselves. We see a lot more distance education, logistics or even the remote delivery of drugs. "

In catering, an awareness of the importance of digital

Another sector strongly affected by the crisis: catering.

The start-up Zenchef, which helps restaurants in particular with their online reservation system, was able to do well during and after confinement.

"During the closure of restaurants (from March to June), the only way to communicate restaurants was through digital and social networks. They realized that this communication and online booking had to be developed. Since June, we has never had so many requests, almost twice as many as before the confinement, ”explains Xavier Zeitoun, boss and co-founder of the start-up.

"We have gained several years in a few months. Catering is an industry that still works a lot the old way. This has changed because they have had to use the internet a lot more and adopt digital," he continues.

Events, a highly impacted sector to reinvent

On the other hand, events are still far from having seen the end of the tunnel.

Some start-ups are still trying to find solutions, while waiting for better days.

"There are now platforms that are being created to organize remote events, or even to do remote team-building. We are starting to see sectors that are completely recreating themselves," says Roxanne Varza.

 "Station F has been greatly impacted on events. We are starting to have normal attendance, and events should return by the end of the year", hopes the boss of Station F.

The recovery plan, a source of "opportunities"

For many companies, especially start-ups, the stimulus plan presented by the government last week is a real source of hope.

At least 7 billion euros have been planned for digital, including 3.7 billion for start-ups and "strategic digital technologies".

The government has also identified several promising sectors, such as personalized medicine or quantum research.

"There are a lot of opportunities, we will see more and more start-ups being created around these key points. Digital technology applies to everything, there will even be things not yet imagined that can be create ", wants to believe the boss of Station F.

Some voices, such as France Digitale (which brings together start-ups and investment funds in the same organization), however regretted that this plan was not more ambitious in digital.

An analysis that Roxanne Varza does not share, for whom "the amounts are very high".

"We are talking about 7 billion euros, which is not negligible. France was one of the first countries and among the most generous to offer aid to start-ups. It has helped many start-ups. L he emphasis was placed on digital training and financing, these are very good fights. This plan did not disappoint me, on the contrary. "