The six upcoming businesses that Hexa, a Paris-based startup studio once known as eFounders, has revealed have been released. The combination of corporate SaaS firms and blockchain data startups makes for an intriguing combination.
It’s also always intriguing to observe the ideas and patterns that emerge from these fresh batches, especially considering eFounders’ past performance. Recall that eFounders was founded in 2011 with an emphasis on SaaS companies developing products and services that would shape the nature of work in the future.
Among the businesses in eFounders’ portfolio are Front, Spendesk, and Aircall. More recently, eFounders changed its name to Hexa and expanded its reach. Hexa is now a holding company for many startup studios, such as Logic Founders for finance themes, 3 Founders for web businesses, and e Founders for the future of work (yet).
Over the last ten years, Hexa has launched more than forty businesses. While some have performed extraordinarily well, others have never really taken off. The firms in Hexa’s portfolio were valued at $5 billion last year.
Hexa and its startup studios create the concepts underlying these businesses. Subsequently, they search for the ideal founding team to refine those concepts continuously. The startup studio contributes its knowledge in product design, go-to-market strategy, hiring, fundraising, and other areas for the first year or two.
A startup becomes a legitimate independent business if it raises its seed round, at which point the startup studio staff can work on other projects. Co-founder and CEO Thibaud Elziere said, “Nothing is changing with Hexa; we still keep 30% in equity post-seed, except that now 7.5% of this 30% stake is allocated to the studio founder,” in response to a question on Hexa’s investment in its firm.
These are the next Hexa startups, then.
Riverflow
Hexa’s web3 startup studio, 3Founders, is the creator of the startup Riverflow. It’s a startup that specializes in blockchain data orchestration.
Riverflow will enable you to get data from wallet addresses, smart contracts, blockchain transactions, and more. After that, the data may be edited and moved to a data warehouse, analytics program, or business intelligence tool.
Initially, I believed Riverflow would function similarly to Zapier but with blockchain data. That’s precisely how it works, yet it serves as a tool for data analysts. Thus, it acts more like Segment than Zapier and enables customers to integrate blockchain data with SaaS applications and data warehouses, according to Florent Quinti, the leader of 3Founders.
Okko
A new company called Okko simplifies the purchase process. Who would have imagined that for tech companies, procurement would grow to be a significant vertical?
However, Okko is not the only startup focusing on revamping procurement methods in 2023, as many tech owners are looking for ways to keep their businesses afloat and reduce expenses.
Because the procurement platform is too complicated, many employees attempt to avoid using it. However, procurement may only be a valuable tool for cost control if you can see the whole picture.
Okko is not interested in creating a cutting-edge procurement system from the ground up, as Pivot is. Okko intends to update the vendor portal, or the interface for creating purchase orders, and connect with current systems like Oracle NetSuite.
Catalog
A new SaaS solution for B2B wholesale orders is called CatalCatalogsider, a clothing line that supplies independent retailers with merchandise.
The intention behind the moniker Catalog is to redesign the catalCatalog businesses use for their business-to-business (B2B) clientele. Catalog centralizes all product information into a website, eliminating the need to share an Excel file with a plethora of cryptic reference numbers.
The company’s ERP is then immediately updated with online orders, creating new opportunities for promotions, recurrent charges, the introduction of new products, etc.
Ring X
For now, this corporate knowledge-focused business is still going under the codename RingX. It might be challenging to get the appropriate materials to learn how to perform something correctly because many occupations are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Rather than providing the appropriate resources, this startup seeks to connect you with experts from other businesses that have already dealt with the same problem. Through this peer-to-peer network, people can learn new topics and interact with specialists.
Kiosk
Based on WhatsApp Business, Kiosk is a SaaS business. It might be characterized as an attempt to provide additional functionality to WhatsApp so companies can communicate with their clients more effectively.
For example, a Kiosk may generate leads using a straightforward funnel that resembles a chatbot. Prospective clients initiate a WhatsApp chat and respond to basic inquiries like “how big is your home?” and “when would you like to start your home renovation project?”
Kiosk’s interface with other SaaS applications, like your help desk, CRM, or e-commerce platform, may also enable you to manage support inquiries.
Tengo
Lastly, Tengo centralizes all French public tenders to ensure that businesses don’t pass up the opportunity to submit a bid. Companies that depend significantly on general requests for income generation may find this tool helpful.
“We use AI/LLM technology to help respond to private tenders and we detect all public tenders (we’ve built a ‘Google Alert’ for public tenders),” stated Matthieu Vaxelaire, the CEO of eFounders.
You may think of Tengo as Govly for the French market.
Two projects without names
Hexa is already considering what comes after those initiatives. Under the codenames TopiX and GPTX, it still has two additional business concepts, but it hasn’t found the founders to work on them yet.
Topix is an AI-enhanced communication solution designed primarily for mobile devices. GPTX is a generative AI tool for internal use cases in security- and privacy-conscious businesses.
