Objow raises 2 million euros and accelerates its development to become the European leader in performance management

Author
Objow
Published
December 16, 2024

After 5 years of self-financing, Lyon-based startup Objow is accelerating its drive to become the European leader in corporate performance management, by raising 2 million euros.

Lyon, December 5, 2024 - Objow, a business performance management platform, announces a €2 million round of financing from Edenred Ventures (an independent investment fund backed by Edenred, world leader in business services), Crédit Agricole Création (Crédit Agricole Centre-Est), HUB612 Participations (Caisse d'Épargne Rhône-Alpes), Holnest (Family Office of Jean-Michel Aulas) and BPI. Thanks to this operation, Objow intends to pursue its mission of helping companies to boost the performance of their teams. Objow has already attracted over 25,000 users in France and abroad. With this round of financing, the company aims to become the European leader in corporate performance management.

Driving corporate performance to motivate and engage employees

The selection of key performance indicators(KPIs ) is often botched, whether through lack of time, lack of knowledge or lack of structure. In fact, there's a tendency to choose "boilerplate" indicators. If you proceed in this way, you risk not only failing to motivate your sales force, but also failing to produce analyses that are relevant to your business, particularly where sales KPIs are concerned.


In recent years, the role of the manager has evolved considerably. In the past, the manager's main task was to allocate tasks, monitor progress and ensure that objectives were met. Today, this role has become both more comprehensive and more complex. The manager must now lead his or her team by motivating, encouraging and engaging employees, in order to mobilize them towards a common goal: the company's performance.

At the same time, employees are increasingly disengaged. Only 7% of employees are deeply committed to their work, according to Gallup's latest annual "State of the Global Workplace" survey. Salary obviously remains a strong motivational lever, but other financial and non-financial levers also come into play: impact, career development, skills enhancement, recognition, and so on. 

That's why Objow offers a fun and engaging solution to facilitate the daily commitment and coaching of teams, for improved performance. In concrete terms, Objow makes it possible to monitor performance data, animate teams using gamification mechanisms and then reward participants with various prizes (bonuses, gifts, etc.).

Jonathan Le Duc, co-founder and CEO, explains: "We were, and still are, convinced that employee motivation is a powerful performance lever that companies are still under-utilizing. To activate it effectively, it's essential to gamify the achievement of objectives, while remaining in tune with operational realities in the field. With Objow, we aim to meet employees' need for recognition and strengthen their commitment to their company."

Objow, a market-approved solution

Objow's success is confirmed, and the tool is already a must-have in the daily lives of user teams: 

  • In 2 years, the company has increased its ARR (annual recurring revenue) 16-fold.
  • The solution already has more than 25,000 users in France and abroad, including major French players such as Manpower, MGEN, Edenred, CNP Assurances, Cegid and Yoplait.
  • Feedback shows the enthusiasm generated by the platform: 
  • Users say they are 92% satisfied;
  • Performance indicators animated through the tool are up +18%;
  • The time spent organizing and running incentives is reduced by 60%.

"In 2 years, we've seen Objow grow, structure itself and become profitable. In particular, we supported the founders during our acceleration program in 2023, so the next logical step was to invest in this company. Objow takes a unique approach to boosting employee engagement, improving productivity and promoting a positive performance culture, making a significant contribution to the company's bottom line. HUB612 Participations is delighted to support the Objow team in their ambition and this new stage in their ascent." - Maud Charaf, Director of HUB612 Participations. 

To date, the solution has focused mainly on driving the performance of its customers' sales forces. Managers can now engage their sedentary salespeople, traveling salespeople and customer advisors, as well as their external partners, resellers and specifiers, to collectively achieve the company's objectives. 

At CNP Assurances, Alexandre Lenormand, Head of Sales Promotion, testifies to the benefits of the tool: "With Objow, we've seen a significant improvement in sales performance: on average, 1 more policy is sold per sales advisor every 2 days". He also asserts that managers gain in time and visibility thanks to a tool that facilitates their day-to-day work. At CNP Assurances, "our sales animators gain at least 1 hour a day, which means more free time in the field, for individual coaching, not to mention a lighter mental workload!" continues Alexandre Lenormand.

Raise funds to accelerate deployment and become the No. 1 in corporate performance management

Profitable since December 2023, Objow is now looking to accelerate its deployment in France first, in order to become the European leader in corporate performance management in 5 years' time:

  • offering the tool to the whole company, to impact overall performance. The platform can be used by HR, marketing and other functions;
  • intelligent day-to-day coaching, so that managers can motivate their employees even more effectively;. a more personalized employee experience, with more precise objectives, reward management and commission tracking,
  • by strengthening its teams. In 2024, Objow doubled its workforce, and plans to recruit new talent in 2025. 

Following this fund-raising, Objow, never forgetting its bootstrap DNA, intends to return to profitability by the end of 2025.

"Validating our ability to achieve a real ROI was essential for us, so that we could then grow. Today, it's the right time to accelerate. We've got great metrics, customers who are committed over the long term, and companies that are now more mature on the subject of performance management. It's up to us to show everyone that Objow is a 'must-have' for businesses" comments Jonathan Le Duc, co-founder and CEO of Objow.

"Objow won us over with its particular attention to the challenge of motivating teams, both internal and external to its customers. We were also impressed by the results achieved by Objow in bootstrap mode, as well as by the determination and motivation of its founders and team." Philippe Dufour, Managing Partner - Edenred Ventures

"We are delighted to support Jonathan and Hadryen in this first round of financing. Their ability to execute and the team's agility convinced us in a rapidly expanding market. Objow has all the qualities needed to become a key player in sales performance management, and we look forward to accompanying them on this adventure." Jordan Rivieri, Investor - Crédit Agricole Création

Press contact: Marine Thivend -
marine.thivend@hub612.com - 06 71 38 45 77

About Objow

Created in Lyon in 2019, Objow is a performance animation platform for companies. With Objow, companies pilot their objectives, animate and reward their employees and external partners to achieve their growth objectives. Convinced that employees need clear, concrete objectives, and financial and extra-financial rewards to be motivated and committed to their missions, Jonathan Le Duc and Hadryen Chartier created Objow, to help companies better animate the performance of their teams. Since then, Objow has already attracted 25,000 users from major groups such as Manpower, CNP Assurances, Cegid and Yoplait. Thanks to a €2 million round of financing from Edenred Ventures (an independent investment fund backed by Edenred, the world leader in business services), Crédit Agricole Création (Crédit Agricole Centre-Est), HUB612 Participations (Caisse d'Épargne Rhône-Alpes) and Holnest (Family office of Jean-Michel Aulas), Objow aims to become the European leader in corporate performance management.

About Edenred Ventures

Edenred Ventures is the corporate venture fund of the Edenred group, based in London since 2012.

The fund has a highly operational approach and supports management teams in models to which Edenred can contribute through the know-how of the Group's entities. 

Edenred is a CAC 40 company (EDEN), its digital services and payments platform is used by 60 million people in 45 countries. By 2023, Edenred will have achieved sales in excess of 2.5 billion euros.  

About Crédit-Agricole Création

A regional player in innovation capital for over 25 years, CA Création is the Crédit Agricole Centre-Est subsidiary dedicated to providing capital support for young innovative companies. The fund supports start-ups in its region (Ain, Rhône, Saône-et-Loire, northern Ardèche, Drôme and Isère) in their technological development and commercial acceleration, in a wide range of sectors (healthcare, digital, industry, etc.), in partnership with leading players in innovation capital. Driven by the values of the mutualist model, CA Création brings the Crédit Agricole Group's diverse expertise to bear on its investments. As part of the Centre-Est Regional Bank's innovation program, the fund complements the support and acceleration services offered to start-ups selected by the Village by CA Centre-est, and advises companies on their equity financing projects.

About HUB612 Participations

HUB612 Participations is HUB612's investment fund. Founded in 2016, HUB612 is a gas pedal and investment fund, supporting B2B Tech startups to drive them towards sustainable, long-term growth. A subsidiary of Caisse D'Épargne Rhône-Alpes, the gas pedal focuses on the Fintech, InsurTech & SaaS B2B sectors. Since its creation in 2016, HUB612 has supported over 80 startups and invested in 23 of them. 

About Holnest

Holnest is the Family Office of the Aulas family. Holnest's ambition is to pursue and accelerate the entrepreneurial adventure begun over thirty years ago, with the creation of Cegid and the takeover and subsequent development of Olympique Lyonnais. The aim is to deploy an active investment strategy in its areas of expertise (B2B, B2B2C, Digital/Software, Entertainment, Services, etc.) Holnest is led and managed by Alexandre Aulas and Patrick Bertrand.More about Holnest

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