• Swile became in the week the 19th French unicorn, an unlisted start-up whose capitalization exceeds one billion dollars.

  • The start-up, based in Montpellier, has dematerialized the benefits reserved for company employees (meal vouchers, holiday vouchers, mobility aids, etc.)

  • It has 15,000 client companies and 500,000 employees use it daily.

    The fundraising should enable it to attack the South American market, Brazil in particular.

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 services 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 Montpellier-based company, France is back on par with Germany in terms of the number of unicorns, but remains largely behind the United Kingdom, which has 33. In 2019, Emmanuel Macron had mentioned the desire to reach the number to 25, by 2025.

Swile impresses with the speed with which it has established itself in the meal vouchers market “into which we have embarked with the desire to dematerialize it.

Starting from zero, we took 13% market share in three years, ”explains, for

20 Minutes

, the president and founder Loïc Soubeyrand.

Then, from a restaurant voucher card, Swile (for Let's Smile at Work) quickly became an employee benefit card on which all the benefits granted by their companies are managed: restaurant vouchers, but also mobility assistance, gift vouchers and holiday titles soon.

15,000 companies and 500,000 employees already use it on a daily basis

"Become a card that employees use for all their types of expenses"

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.

As always or almost, among innovative companies, the initial idea of ​​the founder of the company has evolved.

“Originally, I had imagined simplifying the lunches for employees 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 had to tackle payment first. The first restaurateur I met said "Okay. But 70% of my turnover, I do it in restaurant title. "Only in paper at the time"

"This unicorn status strengthens our credibility abroad"

This development obviously appeals to investors.

“Becoming a unicorn is not an end in itself, but one step among many in our development.

But an important step because it allows us to strengthen our credibility, to show guarantees of assurance to our customers, in particular with partners abroad. ”

Montpellier

Montpellier: They want to popularize "hygiene through water" to remove toilet paper from our toilets

Did you see ?

Sorare game raises $ 680 million, a record for a French start-up

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Montpellier

  • Start-up

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Economy

  • Unicorn