STATION F Founders Program sees big jump in repeat founders

As many of you already know, STATION F Founders Program is the most selective acceleration program on campus. It has been fully redesigned with a new format in 2022. The new format works with 25 companies (maximum) per batch and allows for a much more hands-on experience. However, the most notable change is the investment format - select companies can now qualify for an investment from STATION F.

New batch, repeat founders

Since the redesign of the Founders Program, we are pleasantly surprised to see a growing number of repeat founders joining this program - as well as other programs on campus - including Pimento, Beavr, Presti, Selfr and more. This is also a growing trend within the greater ecosystem. 

The Founders Program Spring 2024 cohort includes 19 new startups, with nearly 40% being founded by people who have started companies before, coming from successful companies like RelyComply, TVTY, Medicheck, Sepage, to name just a few. As well as repeat founders, this batch clearly demonstrates the international reach of the Founders Program in this batch, with entrepreneurs joining from the United States, Mexico, Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Iran, and more. The current batch includes companies from AI/LM, Climate, HRtech, Medtech, Fintech verticals. It's no surprise to anyone that AI is the most represented vertical, with over 50% of the startups, followed by the climate vertical with 15% of startups. We’ll share the full list of startups at the bottom of this article, but we wanted to highlight some of them first:

• Formality: Formality eliminates the administrative burden of running a company. Eliott Reilhac (CEO) is the former co-founder of TVTY where he secured $12 million funding and  established a sales organization generating $10 million ARR in 4 countries. He spent 3 years in New York to launch and grow the US business. He successfully managed the sale of TVTY to Nielsen Media in 2021. With his new venture Formality.com, he has already assembled a team of 12 and signed contracts with clients like Electra, Lifen and Resilience.

• Kelvin: Kelvin is a B2B SaaS who generates home energy retrofit plans. The CEO, Clémentine  Lalande, is a graduate of Centrale Paris and TU Berlin. She’s the former CEO and co-founder of Once, a dating app that grew to 12 million users across 8 European countries. She successfully exited the venture in 2021 to SDV. With 6 years at BCG Paris, she also serves as a venture capital investor.

• Leadbay: Leadbay develops AI models to predict B2B Sales next customer.Ludovic Granger (CEO) is the former Head of Ventures at Inovexus (Euro-US acceleration fund). Milan Stankovic (CTO) holds a PhD in AI/ML/Semantic web with a specializationn in Recommender Systems, having authored over 60 papers & member of the Research Council of Sorbonne. He has co-founded and was CPTO at Blindnet (Privacy VC-Backed company) as well as co-founder and CEO of SEPAGE, a successfully exited travel tech company.

• Landng: Landng helps luxury and travel brands drive and measure the attribution of influencer marketing campaigns. We make travel shoppable. Devon Kea DeAngelo (CEO) has 11+ years of experience leading social media and influencer marketing strategy for global brands. Formerly with BBDO Paris (Omnicom), Devon’s notable contributions include working for Coty Luxury & Consumer, and PayPal. Nacera Belal (COO) has 11+ years of product experience in the marketing and creative technology space both in-house and vendor side with brands such as; Estée Lauder Companies, L’Oréal, Kiehl’s, John Hardy, Calvin Klein and more.

• Bluco: Bluco helps companies recruit qualified candidates faster with conversational AI. Nicolò Magnante is an HEC alumnus who began his career at Bain & Company and contributed to the opening of the BrightHouse division at BCG Milan before joining the Parisian Scale-up Ovrsea. Francisco De Latour obtained his software engineering degree in UCL, where he founded and sold his first startup. He then worked for a scale up acquired by HP, as the first employee and technical lead of the venture, as well as in HRTech for a well-known ATS.

• EXXA: EXXA empowers developers to reduce the financial and environmental costs of Generative AI use cases. EXXA platform offers seamless access to advanced optimisation methods, such as batch inference and the implementation of smaller, more efficient finetuned models. Constant Razel (CEO) has an engineering and business background with degrees from Mines Saint-Etienne and HEC Paris. He brings four years of strategy and cost optimisation experience at Bain & Company. Etienne Balit (CTO) holds a Master's degree from ENS Ulm and a Ph.D. in computer science from Inria. As the former Head of R&D at Neovision, Etienne oversaw 25+ AI projects during his five-year tenure.

Here is the remaining startups in the current batch: 

Adorno AI: Adorno AI gives every creator their personal video post-production team.

Bampa: Bampa offers employee benefits that adapt to fit parents' lives.

Darween Bioscience: Darween Bioscience pioneers next-generation seed production by cultivating animal proteins within seeds. This innovation enables ingredient companies to leverage their existing infrastructures without incurring additional costs, allowing them to offer efficient proteins that match the price, taste, and texture of animal-based food, while avoiding millions of tons CO2e emissions annually.

Enobase: Enobase is the ultimate all-in-one toolkit with integrated applications, designed to empower businesses and individuals.

GoDraft: GoDraft is a mobile app built to engage esport fans. 

Lasqo: Lasqo is the instant on-brand visual assets for marketing teams.

ListenUp!: ListenUp! is a delightful AI feedback & user research hub.

Renalto: Renalto provides AI assistants for construction companies. 

Sonaar: Sonaar leverages data to predict public tenders. 

Swaive: Swaive is a low-risk investment platform that makes cash remuneration accessible to both businesses and individuals.

Televet: Televet offers online veterinary advice for pet parents.

Mago: Mago creates and stylizes magical short films with ease.

Steerlab: Steerlab supercharges your response to RFPs and Security Questionnaires with AI.

The deadline to apply for the next batch of the Founders Program is July 7 2024, 11:59PM. The program will begin in September 2024.