Alma, financial tools for all retailers
Founded in 2018, Alma offers a no-obligation solution enabling merchants to increase their sales by setting up split or deferred payment on their online shop or in their physical store. The start-up manages the risk of non-payment and guarantees all payments to its merchants.
Much more than a financial solution, the start-up is committed to putting the commercial relationship at the heart of its business. To this end, it is investing heavily in the development of its product to offer the best possible shopping experience, as well as improving its scoring algorithms, which enable it to accept or reject a payment request in a matter of seconds.
Serving commerce also means having a team dedicated to commercial relations. At Alma, this is the case with a team available seven days a week.
And the start-up’s growth is exponential! Founded three years ago, it already has 220 employees and plans to double its workforce by the end of 2022. Alma has already raised several rounds of financing, most recently €210 million (including €115 million in equity and €95 million in debt). More than 6,000 merchants use Alma every day: small retailers as well as major names such as Galeries Lafayette, Le Printemps, Go Sport and Kookaï.
Present in five European countries (France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain), the company intends to open up access to its financial solution to other countries in the euro zone, five of which are already planned for this year (Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Ireland).
To support its growth, the young start-up can count on the staff at its Paris office, as well as on the support of local branches across France and Europe, which are opening up as the company expands to be as close as possible to its customers.
At the end of 2020, the company was planning to open a centre outside Paris, specifically dedicated to customer relations.
An ideal location in the heart of the retail valley
To support its ambitions, Alma wants to bring together a customer relations team in a single location to offer its users the best possible experience.
There are several prerequisites for choosing a destination for this project:
- Be in a destination where Paris is easily accessible by train.
- Set up in a city large enough to have a pool of multilingual talent.
- Be part of a strong and dynamic local ecosystem.
After visiting Reims, Rennes and Nantes, the Alma team made the logical and natural choice of Lille.
What really tipped the balance was the fact that the Lille region is THE home of retail in France. There are many large head offices here, but also companies renowned for the excellence of their customer relations. The Lille area is home to customer management nuggets that really have this in their DNA. We’ve sensed this in all the meetings we’ve had, and it’s something that’s very specific to the region.
Once they’d found their destination, the Alma team were able to count on the support and guidance of the Invest team at Hello Lille to help them find the location of their dreams.
After several visits, Euratechnologies was chosen for a number of reasons. Firstly, for the flexibility of its offer and the high standard of its services. With 15 employees starting up in July 2021, Alma aims to have nearly 150 employees on its site by the end of 2023.
Euratechnologies is the Station F of the Lille area. There’s a whole ecosystem here that’s of interest to us, from entrepreneurs to other start-ups and major head offices. We can attend lots of events and be as close as possible to our customers, like Ankorstore, so it’s the place to be!
As soon as she arrived, Alma benefited from the Invest team’s support in putting her in touch with the various players: “Lille was a real facilitator! We were put in touch with a number of partners, not only to help us find a property, but also with shopkeepers’ associations and people from Pôle Emploi. We were also able to count on the invaluable support of Nord France Invest and Euratechnologies. The Invest team was very quick to understand our logistical needs and that really saved us time.
Now based in the former Leblan-Lafont factory, Alma has already planned to rent a 400m2 office to Wenov, located next door. Around thirty French and multilingual employees will be recruited in 2022, mainly with two profiles: the first in customer support and the fight against fraud, and the second in risk assessment.
With the arrival of Alma, the city may well have welcomed a new unicorn! Whatever the case, the future looks bright for the company, which is continuing to expand both in Lille and internationally.
