What the business is
SaaS platform giving commercial and residential property owners and asset managers AI-driven master data, ESG reporting, financial analysis and maintenance planning for existing buildings.
The bet
A proptech investor-CEO with the right network can turn a profitable EUR 10M-revenue platform into a European category leader.
Starting capital
EUR 20M Series B from RAISE Investissement and angel investors including Sanofi founder Jean-Francois Dehecq (2022-04).
How it started
Real-estate entrepreneurs Michel Tolila and Jean-Maurice Oudot founded the company in Paris in 2017 as La Fonciere Numerique, targeting existing buildings whose records still live on paper - 'a 19th century method of record-keeping' - rather than new builds like rival Alasco.
What happened
By 2022 Stonal was profitable with EUR 10 million in revenue and about 70 staff. It raised a EUR 20 million Series B from RAISE Investissement and angels, and pulled off a coup by luring Robin Rivaton away from Eurazeo, one of Europe's most active proptech investors, to become CEO and drive sales into Germany and the UK. Rivaton: 'I was super happy at Eurazeo... but it is a once in a lifetime opportunity: an experienced founder ready to leave room, a sector I know super well - real estate which is full of opportunities, and impressive tech relying on AI with a powerful network effect as our collected dataset grows.'
What has to be true
Rivaton came from Eurazeo with board seats at French property developers and REITs - exactly the network a sales-led expansion into Germany and the UK needs.
Stonal was already profitable on EUR 10M revenue; the hire plus EUR 20M was a bet it could grow far faster than a founder-led sales motion allowed.
Existing buildings hold decades of paper records; digitising them into a growing master data set compounds into a network effect Rivaton explicitly cited.
Rising interest rates and industry-wide net-zero expectations increased demand for the ESG and financial insights Stonal's data platform produces.
What can be applied
A founder-led company can hire its scale-up leadership out of its own investor ecosystem: the VC who knows the sector becomes the CEO who sells it.
Aftermath
As of the 2022-04-27 announcement, Rivaton had taken over as CEO with founders Tolila and Oudot staying on - Tolila 'glad to welcome Robin Rivaton and RAISE Investissement' for 'this new chapter of Stonal' - and the fresh EUR 20 million was aimed at the German and UK market expansion plans.
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