The capital will finance the deployment of “Zeplace”, a new B2C and B2B e-commerce platform based on artificial intelligence.
ThePlaceToWish.com, the crowdfunding site for gift wishes and joint purchases has launched a fundraising of one million euros.
The capital will finance the deployment of “Zeplace” a new solution based on artificial intelligence, as well as the next 18 months of activities of the six-person startup. Tristan Viller its founder intends to strengthen its teams and recruit developers, data experts, as well as salespeople.
Business angels and entrepreneurs based in Luxembourg, France and Belgium are part of the round table. Among them is LBAN, which had already participated in a previous fundraising of the startup in early 2022. So is Pierre Thomas, a serial entrepreneur and Investor Relations Director of the startup, in charge of communication and coordination of fundraising.
Another “prestigious” investor from Luxembourg, who has made a career in data processing on the financial markets, is also on the ranks.
“Today, some 60% of the fundraising is already secure,” says Tristan Viller, founder and CEO of ThePlaceToWish.com.
“The pre-marketing of Zeplace is scheduled for mid-2023. And the sale of the first licenses should begin at the end of 2023. Some B2B early adopters are already extremely interested. Among the brands of intent, there are all types of e-commerce including designers of precious jewellery, book publishers, furniture manufacturers, marketing agencies, mass distribution players, etc.”.
Founded in 2017, the startup began its activities by deploying online wishes social network in 2018. “The idea was to launch a social network around the gift idea or purchases with others, by bringing together the functionalities of wish lists, kitty and e-commerce, all in the form of a social network,” Viller explains.
“The operation is quite simple: you create your account, like on Facebook or LinkedIn. Then you post all your desires or needs in the form of ‘wishes’, without catalog restrictions. Then you create your permanent network of relatives. These same relatives will then be able to consult your wishes and participate directly in their financing from the platform,” the startupper added.
“Once your friends have fully funded your wish, there is nothing more to do. The platform will address the most suitable e-commerce partner, place the order with the latter, and then organize with him the delivery directly to the customer’s home. Our solution is so effective that even content creators are increasingly abandoning Amazon’s wishlist in favor of ThePlaceToWish.com.”
“A magic link”
The company, which already boasts more than 200,000 users in 45 countries, and collaborates with more than 60 B2B players, wants Zeplace to impose itself on the market of ultra-personalized recommendations.
To develop its artificial intelligence platform, the startup had to increase its skills: “We recruited an R&D researcher, a doctor in applied mathematics and automation, specialized in artificial intelligence and who oversees the scientific component within our company,” explains Tristan Viller.
“We are also working with a team from the CNRS in Nancy, the LORIA (the Lorraine laboratory for research in computer science and its applications) specializing in multi-criteria recommendation and user modelling.”
What will this new platform offer? “Its objective is to create a kind of ‘magic link’ between the needs and desires of consumers, on the one hand, and the offers and challenges of B2B players,” says Tristan Viller.
For the consumer, the solution will take the form of an intelligent consumer assistant that will allow him to create his digital double (an avatar in his image), to which he will attribute his tastes, his passions and his hobbies, what he likes most and least.
On the basis of the information and qualitative criteria entered, the solution will send highly specific recommendations to customers. Whatever the desires and/or needs, whatever the context, the consumer will also be protected and anonymized thanks to an encrypted bridge.
“This information has very high added value for professionals since it is claimed by the consumer. These are not browsing habits vaguely interpreted by cookies, but reliable information,” the CEO continues.
B2B partners will be able to consult market trends, make a highly qualitative watch and above all, target exclusively the most receptive customers and prospects, via our totally “cookieless” solution.
Via a SaaS license sold monthly or annually and from their e-commerce platform, these partners – online merchants, brands, large companies, and physical and local stores – will then be able to consult anonymized data on consumer choices and deploy targeted advertising more refined to consumer expectations. A financial gain for the latter, who thus save on their advertising budget.
“A saving of time for the consumer too: in addition to receiving truly personalized recommendations, he can indeed define very precise criteria of value (local, organic, vegan…): priority to recommendations coming rather from convenience stores and not from giants of the Net for example. The user takes back control!,” says Tristan Viller.
“At the local level we also offer a fantastic opportunity because we are restoring the balance between online and local consumption, by offering recommendations on a product sold in a store close to home rather than at a GAFAM giant. Our site can also support our users in their desire to consume more sustainably.”.
On the GDPR side, the latter ensures that customer data is not marketed to third parties: “The data claimed by B2C users and exploited by B2B partners are anonymized. And consumer anonymization is an extremely important argument that appeals to investors who join us,” Viller adds.
