Ouest Croissance et al. in €10m second round for Qowisio

José Rojo
10 June 2015

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Ouest Croissance, Pays de la Loire Développement, Go Capital and BNP Paribas Développement have taken part in a €10m second round for French tech company Qowisio.

The round is understood to amount to €10m, with €5m in equity supplied by the pool of investors and an additional €5m in debt.

The transaction saw Ouest Croissance and Pays de la Loire Développement, shareholders in Qowisio since a €500,000 first round in January 2013, joined by new investors Go Capital and BNP Paribas Développement.

Leading the consortium, Ouest Croissance is thought to have increased its stake in the company following the round.

Qowisio will use the fresh capital to strengthen its team and hire 70 new staff within three years, 22 of whom should be recruited before the end of 2015.

There are plans to launch the company's first ultra narrow band (UNB) bit rate public network in France dedicated to connected objects. The business foresees growth as the number of connected objects in the country is expected to exceed two billion by 2020.

Company
Created in 2009 in Angers Technopôle's technology incubator, Qowisio is headquartered in the same city and specialises in developing wireless, energy-efficient networks used to connect objects.

The company currently employs 25 staff, 15 of whom are based in the Angers office while 10 carry out sales operations from abroad. It reported €3m in revenues in 2014 and is now aiming to reach the €15m mark in 2015.

People
Managing director Anne Jacquinet-Sulger and Laurent Bodin led the deal for Ouest Croissance, while investment director Valérie Allain-Dupré led the deal for Pays de Loire Développement. Meanwhile, investment director Bertrand Distinguin worked on the deal on behalf of Go Capital and investment director Benoît Picart represented BNP Paribas Développement.

Cyrille le Floch and Guillaume Houssay are CEO and managing director at Qowisio, respectively.

Advisers
Equity – Cabinet Avodire, Nolwenn Hadet (Legal).
Company – Cabinet Oratio, Pascal Giard (Legal).