Swile's worth has risen to $ 1 billion, just three years after it was founded, thanks to a $ 200 million funding round.
Swile's worth has risen to $ 1 billion, just three years after it was founded, thanks to a $ 200 million funding round. After beginning with dematerialized lunch coupons, the company now aims to broaden its operations to include increasing corporate productivity.
With only three years under his belt, it already has ambitions to dominate Latin America. Swile, a French firm that specializes in dematerialized food coupons and other corporate financial incentives, has secured $ 200 million to expand into Brazil and Mexico.
It therefore enters the club of French unicorns, or businesses valued at more than a billion dollars. Swile also plans to expand its offerings by providing a "employee super app." Here's all you need to know about this business.
1. A payment card and an application
Loc Soubeyrand introduced Swile, formerly known as Lunchr, in early 2018. The firm sells a Mastercard smart card that can be used to dematerialize meal coupons and make payments at any payment terminal without any special setup. With one caveat: this card will work anywhere.
Since then, the offer has grown to include gift certificates, mobility aids, and, eventually, vacation tickets. It also enables businesses to provide profit-sharing bonuses. Finally, the Swile card allows you to link a bank card to which the complement for a payment will be collected if the amount to be paid exceeds the balance on your Swile account.
Swile also uses an app that seeks to provide workers with a variety of services that keep them up to date with the company's daily operations: an HR survey service, a message service, an online fundraising service, a calendar of corporate events, a colleague reimbursement service, and so on.
2. Swile weighs 13% of the Market in France
Swile currently has 13,000 business clients and 500,000 employees that use its services. In 2021, the company's revenue is anticipated to exceed 850 million euros. The start-up therefore accounts for 13% of the market in France, which is controlled by the four traditional issuers Endenred, Sodexo, Up, and Natixis, which were all found guilty of collusion in 2019.
Swile's most recent major setback came in January, when it signed its first deal with a CAC 40 business. It therefore takes the place of Edenred at Carrefour, and it is utilized by the 62,000 workers of France's largest private company.
3. An American adventure
Swile has picked two key worldwide markets in the dematerialized meal voucher industry for its initial international launch: Brazil and Mexico. It has previously purchased Vee Benefcios, a Brazilian firm that also provides dematerialized payment solutions for employees, in order to win the first Latin American country.
Swile has committed to investing 30 million euros in the Brazilian firm, which employs 90 people and has 750 clients, over the next three years. It also needs to increase its staff to 1,000 people in order to have the human resources to conquer these new markets.
4. "10 nuggets where to apply"
Swile was placed second (after the insurer Alan) on LinkedIn France's list of "the most exciting young startups in France," "capable of recruiting the finest applicants." It bases its rating on its statistics, particularly those relating to job seekers' interest, interactions with the firm on social media, and the position occupied by start-ups in the employee transfer window.
Swile can boast that a third of its employees are permanently teleworked, particularly among the technical teams, in addition to the professional prospects given by this developing firm. It also emphasizes its Glassdoor rating of 4.75 out of 5 stars, which allows workers and ex-employees to rate a firm.
Source: LesEchos