Orange leads €5.3m round for KissKissBankBank

During the round, the corporate was joined by XAnge and several business angels; both parties were existing backers of KissKissBankBank since injecting a total €2m in seed capital via rounds in June 2009 and June 2012.

Owned by French VC Siparex since May 2015, XAnge did not reveal its current contribution either, but the early-stage investor often writes tickets around the €2.3m sweetspot.

Orange Digital Ventures did not disclose its contribution during the €5.3m round. However, the venture corporate arm of the telecoms multinational typically deploys €200,000-3m per deal.

KissKissBankBank will use the fresh €5.3m to strengthen the teams running its Hellomerci and Lendopolis platforms in France. In addition, the business intends to launch a new crowdlending service by 2017, allowing internet users to become shareholders in French startups.

Over the next few years, KissKissBankBank will look to grow internationally. Having already expanded to Belgium, Canada and most recently Germany, the business is contemplating entering new markets.

Company
Founded in 2010, KissKissBankBank is an online crowdfunding service running three different platforms: its namesake specialises in financing cultural and artistic projects, while Hellomerci and Lendopolis focus on loans between individuals and SMEs, respectively.

Headquartered in Paris, the company employs around 15 professionals in France and individual "ambassadors" in Belgium, Italy, Canada and the US.

People
Orange Digital ventures – Pierre Louette (CEO).
KissKissBankBank Technologies – Vincent Ricordeau (co-founder, CEO); Ombline Le Lasseur, Adrien Aumount (co-founders).

Advisers
Equity – Clipperton Finance (corporate finance).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Financials
• France
• France
• XAnge Private Equity
• Venture