Accompanied by investment bank Largillière Finance, the insurtech welcomes Malakoff Humanis via its MH Innov’ fund and Swiss Life France to its capital. Alongside Founder and CEO Jean-Christophe Pandolfi, who retains a majority stake, the Accurafy4 fund is reinvesting, and BNP Paribas and Bpifrance are also participating in the deal.

Santexpat.fr, which is specialized in health insurance and services for French nationals living abroad, has raised over €5 million since its market launch in 2020.

Thanks to this operation, the broker / comparator now intends to accelerate its growth by focusing on three areas. Firstly, the insurtech wants to enrich its healthcare and e-health services around international care access. For this purpose, the company intends to leverage blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Santexpat.fr will also switch its offering to multilingual and multinational services, to provide greater support to foreigners on the move. Finally, the structure aims to develop its B2B and B2B2C distribution channels by making its comparative platform and advice available on a white-label basis to wholesalers and insurers.

Profitability in 2024

Santexpat.fr, which has almost 2,000 policyholders in its portfolio, currently relies on 22 risk carriers and a dozen operators specializing in health services. The insurtech, which by the end of 2022 had achieved premium income of over €2.5 million, is not ruling out external growth opportunities. The company also plans to open an office in North America next year, and is counting on this latest round of financing to achieve profitability by 2024.

Founded in 1985 by Michel Bendahan, XLabs, headquartered in Cholet (49), is an independent inter-regional network of medical biology laboratories based in the Pays de la Loire and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. Historically, the network has developed through external growth, followed by the opening of new sites.

Today, XLabs brings together 10 sampling sites, including a technical platform in Cholet, and relies on an expert team of over 150 employees, including 12 medical biologists, processing 750 dossiers per day (excluding Covid). XLabs has ISO 9001 certification and COFRAC accreditation, which certify the reliability and quality of all analyses performed in the laboratories. It is the only multi-site laboratory with this accreditation in the Pays de la Loire region.

In a market that has grown steadily since the health crisis, XLabs intends to capitalize on its expertise and experienced teams to accelerate its development and consolidate its position as a benchmark in the West of France, as well as in the rest of France.

Consequently, the financing will be used to open new sites and selectively take advantage of external growth opportunities. Through this geographic expansion, XLabs aims to offer a local network for independent, quality and innovative medical biology for the health and well-being of patients.

Created in 2010 and based in Lyon (69), the Groupe Off is organized around its 2 flagship companies: Trax Distribution and Off Global

Trax Distribution is one of the major actors of the distribution of IT products, high tech and connected objects in France. Positioned exclusively in BtoB, Trax Distribution addresses a clientele composed of food supermarket (Carrefour, Auchan, Casino, …),  large specialized retailers (Fnac, Boulanger, Darty, …) and large corporates and office retailers (Office Dépôt, Bureau Vallée, …). Initially specialized in the distribution of storage and flash memory products, Trax Distribution has initiated in 2019 a major diversification towards new segments such as connected objects, urban mobility (scooters, bikes, …) or gaming (accessories).

Off Global is the group’s subsidiary dedicated to the creation, manufacture and distribution of portable PCs and connected watches, produced solely under the NOKIA brand thanks to its global licensing agreement signed in 2021 with the Finnish group.

With its two companies and positioned in a buoyant sector, the Off Group is currently experiencing strong growth and has sales of over €60 million.

The development capital operation, carried out with FRI Gestion and AMDG Private Equity and advised by Largillière Finance, is part of the management’s strong desire to accelerate the growth of the Groupe Off. In particular, it wishes to pursue the development of Off Global’s business following the Nokia license and to accelerate the digitalization of its sales via marketplaces. These new financial resources will also allow the group to pursue its external growth strategy, following the recent acquisition of two companies. New opportunities are already being studied.

List of speakers

Founded in 2019, Latitude is a French startup based in Reims that revolutionizes the development of micro space launchers and rocket engines dedicated to the orbital launch of nanosatellites. Basing the core of its development on metallic 3D printing, it aims to become the world leader in the sector with a first launch planned for 2024.

Latitude has been selected by Blast, France’s leading start-up acceleration program in the aeronautics, space and defense (ASD) sectors.

This fundraising, which follows a first seed round of €750,000 in 2020, will allow the company to continue the development and testing of the Navier engine, support the team’s growth and continue to develop services associated with nanosatellite launches.

Very active in the French start-up ecosystem, Largillière Finance was able to quickly identify the best partners and facilitate fruitful negotiations.

List of Speakers

Founded in the early 2000s in the Swiss canton of Valais, AQUA4D is specialized in water treatment, particularly for precision irrigation and drinking water pipes in buildings. Today, it has more than 5,000 installations in 43 countries. Its unique technology helps industries to accelerate their environmental transition. The company has recently innovated in the areas of surface geothermal energy and large-scale pivot irrigation (the release of this new range is scheduled for 2023).

This fundraising will allow AQUA4D to intensify R&D and innovative product development but also to serve as many producers as possible and continue to restore land while saving water.

List of Speakers

Currently established in 86 stores in France, this operation will enable Cigusto to accelerate its strong development. The company aims to have 250 stores by 2025.

Cigusto is the brand selling electronic cigarettes and vaping liquids made in France, founded in 2013 by Hervé Delille and Didier Bourriez, two retail experts.

With 86 outlets, Cigusto is already the leader in electronic cigarettes in shopping malls. The company plans to invest more than €30 million over the next 4 years to become the leading network of vape in France.

Carmila and Cigusto have mandated Largillière Finance to structure the strengthening of their capital and commercial partnership to support the new ambitions of the brand:

Opening 250 stores by 2025
Development of structuring projects to support growth with the design of its own ERP and a 3,000 m² logistics warehouse
Launch of a new website in the summer of 2021 to accelerate e-commerce

List of Speakers

MyTower, launched in 2015 as an innovation and technology department within Crystal Group, a French transport and customs broker, became a subsidiary of the group in 2018.
MyTower is now taking advantage of the strategic merger between Crystal Group and Dimotrans, orchestrated very recently by Largillière Finance, to become independent. The fundraising should enable MyTower to continue its strong growth, in particular by strengthening its teams to cope with the significant commercial traction that the company is experiencing.

The main challenge for Largillière Finance in this transaction was to identify an investor with expertise in tech and transport issues, capable of supporting MyTower in its strong growth and guaranteeing the perfect sequencing of the spin-off and fundraising operations.

In addition to its technical expertise, Largillière Finance was chosen by the British company for its in-depth knowledge of the French and Swiss markets, enabling it to introduce the most relevant institutional investors such as family offices and asset management companies.

Working simultaneously between the UK, France and Switzerland?

Largillière Finance is not new to the business, having orchestrated the sale of British car manufacturer Caterham last April.

This new successful transaction reinforces Largillière Finance’s expertise in the UK market and more generally in supporting transactions in multicultural environments.

About Vashi

Vashi is one of the fastest growing UK brands, particularly during the health crisis.
Vashi is positioned in the luxury jewellery sector with a hybrid model combining digital and flagship stores.
Its turnover in 2020 is £54 million and is estimated to reach £100 million in 2021. The company continues to grow strongly: Vashi has increased its turnover by 10 times in 3 years and its EBITDA by 24 times in 5 years.

Georges-Henry Levy ; co-founder of the Molitor group, parent company of Repca and Ciprès (pioneer of the “broker-wholesaler” in France) ; co-invests with Capital Croissance in this operation.

The financial operation’s purpose is to speed up the development of Suire Vie & Patrimoine, a specialist in personal insurance for VSEs and SMEs (2,000 customers and €30 million in premiums collected), especially, its external growth (acquisition of the Bordeaux-based broker Ares Group) as well as its development in the AssurTech fields. It allows Largillière Finance to demonstrate once again its expertise in the insurance brokerage sector.

For Largillière Finance, this operation consisted in finding the best partner to support the development of Suire Vie & Patrimoine: a player in the sector who would share the same entrepreneurial vision as the broker. Capital Croissance was the perfect match, particularly to support external growth, while Georges-Henry Levy will bring all his experience and digital culture to Suire Vie & Patrimoine’s management.

The arrival of Capital Croissance and Georges-Henry Levy, minority shareholders with a ticket of nearly €3 million, allows Suire Vie & Patrimoine to finalize the acquisition of the Bordeaux-based broker Ares Group from the Brusson family and to become a leading player in the insurance brokerage sector. The transaction also allows the Nantes-based broker to pursue its digital insurance Marketplace project.

With this operation Largillière Finance strengthens its expertise in the insurance brokerage sector. In January 2020, Largillière Finance became the main advisor for the equity operations of the members of Planète CSCA, the main insurance brokers’ union.

RISQUES & DEVELOPPEMENT has successfully developed integrated natural risk management software.

The company’s comprehensive offer helps effectively address the increase in natural risks, all whilst saving lives.

Already up and running, this solution is sold to major institutions and governments (notably in Africa).

Risques & Développement plans to hire around twenty people in the Aquitaine region and achieve turnover of €50 million within the next 4 years.

Largillière Finance currently supports Risques & Développement in its fundraising with institutional and strategic private players in order to expedite its deployment in France and worldwide.