Hexa is making an attempt one thing new. As a substitute of fostering startups from the bottom up and incubating them for the primary yr or so, the Paris-based startup studio is buying a majority stake in Veevart, a vertical software-as-a-service firm for museums that gives options for ticketing, fundraising, CRM and assortment administration.
Hexa is a well-recognized identify within the French tech ecosystem. The startup studio initially began its life in 2011 as eFounders and usually comes up with concepts for brand spanking new tech corporations. It tries to seek out the precise founding crew and helps them with product design, go-to-market technique, hiring, and fundraising.
After this primary part, the businesses change into correct, impartial startups, however Hexa retains a major stake on the cap desk. Some profitable Hexa portfolio corporations embody Front, Aircall, Spendesk and Swan.
However Veevart isn’t a brand new startup. It was based in 2014 and now works with 160 museums and cultural establishments of all sizes world wide. With its crew of 70 individuals, Veevart is already worthwhile.
The product has been designed as an all-in-one platform for museums, constructed on prime of Salesforce. Museums that use Veevart can create and handle occasions, promote tickets on-line and onsite, handle memberships, automate communications to donors and combine with the museum store.
Many museums use a number of instruments for all these duties. Having a single platform makes it simpler to handle and preserve over time.
The rationale why Veevart depends closely on Salesforce comes all the way down to Veevart’s founder Antonio Velasco Echeverry — earlier in his profession, he had labored with Accenture and Salesforce.
“I wouldn’t say I ‘selected’ to construct on prime of Salesforce. Folks typically assume these choices are intentional, however truthfully, luck performs a giant half. We didn’t select Salesforce — it was merely the expertise I knew finest,” Velasco Echeverry informed TechCrunch.
Regardless of some platform limitations, he added that constructing on prime of Salesforce has some benefits resembling safety, scalability and entry to your complete Salesforce ecosystem.
Veevart has bootstrapped itself for the previous decade and has been worthwhile for some time — “not extremely worthwhile, however worthwhile,” Velasco Echeverry mentioned.
“So once we began conversations with Hexa, we weren’t wanting an excessive amount of for cash, however extra for a accomplice that might assist us get to our income targets sooner and with much less ache,” he added.
With this funding, Hexa acts as a type of hands-on personal fairness accomplice. The startup studio is investing €5 million ($5.4 million at present change charges) to change into the primary shareholder in Veevart.
“Our goal is that Hexa may help us obtain $20 million in [annual recurring revenue], implement finest practices round product, [go-to-market], gross sales, and management,” Velasco Echeverry mentioned.
Non-public fairness corporations sometimes don’t have interaction in small offers like this, whereas VC corporations sometimes search corporations with high-growth potential. However Hexa believes it could actually elevate Veevart to the following stage by offering operational experience to speed up the corporate’s progress.