Twist and Turns ✨
Hi everyone,
Another quarter, another roller coaster ride for the tech world. From sudden drops (SVB anyone?) to thrilling climbs (heard of ChatGPT?), the tech industry has once again proven to be a place where all you can expect is the unexpected. But despite the many twists and turns we've experienced this quarter, for us it’s been marked by our current startups taking off from the nest, launching (Crew is on Product Hunt today), announcing their first rounds of funding and our portfolio companies showing resilience and leveraging new technologies to emerge even stronger. We’re intensely focused on building the future of SaaS, web3 and fintech and we’ve got more startups to be announced soon 👀
Studio News
💥 Let’s think bigger - Our co-founder Thibaud spoke with Forbes on all things Hexa and tech trends in the upcoming years. Thibaud shared his thoughts on why startups should aim beyond borders and become European giants. While co-founder Quentin discussed our model and what we’ve got in store for the future on the Finscale podcast.
💪 Let’s do better - At Hexa, we’re on a mission to build companies that are more innovative, ambitious and impactful - in short: better companies. And to build better we need more equality at the top. That’s why we’re organizing in Paris on April 18th an event for women wanting to launch their companies with impressive speakers including Séraphie de Tracy (Cohort), Saskia Fiszel (Virgil) and Anh-Tho Chuong Degroote (Lago). So if you’re a woman thinking of building a startup or at the very beginning of your journey, then please apply for the event here.
🎙️ Let's push harder - At the Masterdev conference, Studio Founder Florent Quinti discussed the future of web3 with other industry thought leaders. According to Florent, the future of web3 lies in embedded applications. And while the web3 industry has encountered a few recent bumps, it is still very much alive 🔥
Spotlight on the current batch
💸 First rounds - Cohort (3F#22) & Roundtable (eF#21) left the studio and announced their seed rounds 🎉 Cohort raised €3.2 million to reinvent the way brands interact with their customers while Roundtable raised €3 million to make community-investing the new standard for investments (and they did it on their very own platform!). The announcements got covered in TechCrunch, Sifted, Tech.eu & many other media - a testament to their innovative offering and quick traction.
🐣 First reveals - Dialog (3F#22) & Marble (LF#22) presented their visions, solutions and goals at this year’s first edition of our quarterly event Demotime. They did so along four other startups that have yet to be revealed but should be soon - so keep your eyes peeled! Dialog doubled down on their vision for wallet-based marketing while Marble revealed its no-code solution engine for fraud & compliance.
Highlights from past batches
😺 Launch time - Today, Crew (eF#20) is launching on Product Hunt. With Crew’s Chrome extension, one thing is for sure: LinkedIn will never be the same. So go on and support the team on a mission to build the first Recruiting CRM.
📈 More first rounds - It was also time for companies from our past batches to announces their first rounds of fundraisings and product launches, including Crew (eF#20), Cycle (eF#19) and Dotfile (eF#21). Congrats to all! 🔥
🌍 The European way - Swan (eF#19) continues its European expansion, after its Berlin office opening at the end of 2022, the company has now opened an office in the heart of Barcelona. Embedded finance is taking over Europe. And Swan is at the forefront.
🔮 Did someone say AI? - For anyone who’s been living under a rock over the past month, ChatGPT has unleashed the powerful wave of AI. Companies everywhere are racing to enhance their product with AI capabilities, such as Slite’s (eF#17) new AskAI feature, the first of its kind for a knowledge base software, and Front’s (eF#14) new AI capabilities that help teams deliver excellent customer experiences. Something also tells us that more Hexa companies will get on the AI train 🚀
🤓 Defining best practices - And last but not least, Equify (eF#18) published its annual guide about equity practices at France’s tech companies giving readers a highly comprehensive overview of market practices across a wide range of industries and company sizes.
We hope you’re ready for what comes next! And if you ever have any questions or suggestions for this newsletter, don’t hesitate to hit reply.Cheers,
The Hexa Team.