Month: September 2022

THE AI-BASED VIRTUAL TEACHING ASSISTANT RAISES €4M FROM INNOVACOM AND INCO VENTURES

 

A specialist in supporting startups that, through their innovative technologies, are at the forefront of the environmental, economic and industrial transitions, Innovacom is taking a stake, via its Avenir Numérique fund, in ProfesseurBob.ai. The management company Inco Ventures is also participating in this €4 million funding round, led by Expen.

 

Founded in 2019 by François-Xavier Hussherr (PhD from ENS / MIT, founder of the edtech companies LeLivreScolaire and Gutenberg Technology) and Samy Lahbabi (École Polytechnique), and backed by the CNRS and the SATT Paris-Saclay, the deeptech company ProfessorBob.ai has developed an artificial intelligence based on highly innovative natural language processing (NLP) technologies.
The solution is capable of teaching, asking and answering students’ questions, and personalizing learning according to each student’s strengths and difficulties. Students thus learn faster and more effectively: an A/B testing study conducted with one of its clients showed that, with ProfessorBob.ai’s solutions, 40% of learners learn twice as fast and generally perform much better. The startup thus aims to combat school dropout.

 

Hosted at École Polytechnique, ProfessorBob.ai deploys, as SaaS, several complementary solutions to improve learning effectiveness for French and international academic institutions and training organizations, such as CNED, automotive training apprenticeship centers (CFAs) run in partnership with ANFA, and Arizona State University:

• A Knowledge Assistant, available 24/7, that answers more than 80% of learners’ questions accurately.
• Adaptive Learning: ProfessorBob.ai tailors learning paths to each student so that everyone can progress at their own pace and focus their learning effort on the concepts that need deeper work.
• Knowledge Anchoring: ProfessorBob.ai sends each learner quizzes at regular intervals (spaced repetition) to anchor previously acquired knowledge over the long term.
• Generation of activities and exercises: ProfessorBob.ai’s technology can turn any type of knowledge corpus into knowledge trees and thousands of questions and answers and multiple-choice questions (MCQs).

 

“Education should evolve faster over the next 10 years than over the past 100 years. Through AI, knowledge modeling and the personalization of learning paths, we want to support the digital revolution in education while enabling everyone to access equitable, inclusive and high-quality education,” said François-Xavier Hussherr, co-founder and CEO of ProfessorBob.ai.

 

“The service developed by the ProfessorBob.ai teams offers the unprecedented ability to tailor teaching to each student, whatever the subject studied. Digital technology brings real social utility here. This is clearly what we prioritize in our investments, alongside the disruptive technologies that contribute to the major environmental and industrial transitions. We are delighted to support ProfessorBob.ai in its development and in the rollout of its solution in France and the United States,” explained Alban Nénert, Associate at Innovacom.

 

Joffe & Associés (Thomas Saltiel, Catherine Diril and Charlotte Viandaz) advised Innovacom and Inco Ventures on the transaction.

CFNEWS article by Jean-Philippe Mas
Published on 16 Sept. 2022 at 4:28 p.m., updated on 16 Sept. 2022 at 6:14 p.m. – 25 advisers

 

Fogale Sensors is becoming independent, almost 30 years after its creation. The designer and manufacturer of capacitive sensors for industrial and scientific applications was born in 1983 under the aegis of Fogale Nanotech, a group specializing in high-precision dimensional metrology and led by Patrick Leteurtre. The process, run by the Mazars Corporate Finance team, brought together several industrial players and regional and national investment funds. At the end of the auction, Capital Export took the majority of the shares. The balance of the capital is split between two investment vehicles of the regional entities of the Caisse d’Epargne, CELDA Capital Développement and CEPAL Capital Développement, and the management team led by Jérôme Porque, CEO, and Didier Rosières, the founder. Eight managers are becoming shareholders. Senior debt provided by Caisse d’Epargne et de Prévoyance d’Auvergne et du Limousin is financing this first leveraged transaction, which enables both a management buyout and a shareholder transfer.

 

A focus on international development

 

Employing around twenty people, Fogale Sensors designs, manufactures and markets capacitive sensors for a number of sectors, in particular medical and energy. Its sensors are used, among other things, on radiology robots to avoid collisions during surgical procedures, and on turbomachinery in test benches and gas turbines. Also present internationally, it generates revenue reported to be between €5 million and €10 million. “With our support, Fogale Sensors should launch a robotics division within the next two years. In addition, we could look at targets to complement our technologies and/or our international footprint,” explains Michel Claret, Partner at Capital Export.

 

Transaction Participants

 

• Target company: FOGALE SENSORS
• Acquirer or Investor: CAPITAL EXPORT, Michel Claret, Jean-Mathieu Sahy, Nhu Quynh Golder, CAISSE D’EPARGNE AUVERGNE LIMOUSIN (CEPAL), Sébastien Galinier, CELDA CAPITAL DEVELOPPEMENT, Frédéric Sauvayre, MANAGER(S), Jérôme Porque
• Seller: FOGALE NANOTECH, Patrick Leteurtre
• Acquirer’s Corporate Legal Counsel: EY SOCIETE D’AVOCATS, Gérard Léonil, Elodie Cesaro, Eric Philippot, Manon Revest
• Acquirer’s Financial Due Diligence: ODERIS, Julien Passerat, Maxime Girard
• Seller’s Investment Bank / M&A Adviser: MAZARS CF, Matthieu Boyé, Thibault Lacour-Gayet, Alban de Liniers
• Seller’s Corporate Legal Counsel: JOFFE & ASSOCIES, Christophe Joffe, Virginie Belle
• Managers’ Other Advisers: GROUPE AURYS, Ghislain d’Ouince, Hugo Michelas, KERIUS FINANCE, Sébastien Rouzaire, Solal Huard, Marion Dondin
• Debt: CAISSE D’EPARGNE AUVERGNE LIMOUSIN (CEPAL), Damien Reverdiau
• Debt Legal Counsel: DE GAULLE FLEURANCE & ASSOCIES (DGFLA)

 

Things are shifting at Pilocap, a specialist in training for occupational risk prevention. Through an LBO, the company is passing under the control of three investors: Capital Croissance (investing via its Edelwaiss Transition & Impact I fund), UI Investissement and Adaxtra Capital. The transaction aims to help the group expand its geographic coverage by developing a network of branches and franchises, whether through new openings or external growth.

 

Joffe & Associés (Aymeric Dégremont, Paddy Pascot and Rudy Diamant) advised the investors Capital Croissance, UI Investissement and Adaxtra Capital on this transaction.

Le Monde du Droit, September 2, 2022

Concluded for a period of three years, from June 2022 through the Women’s Euro in 2025, this partnership confirms the commitment of BCTG Avocats and Joffe & Associés to the sports sector, and to the world of football in particular. Through this partnership, Uber Eats becomes a major partner of the French national teams and of amateur football.

Augustin Nicolle, Partner in the Corporate/M&A department, and Gaëlle Bloret-Pucci, Partner in the Intellectual Property department at BCTG Avocats, advised Uber Eats on all legal aspects of the transaction, from negotiating the partnership to drafting the related contracts.

The FFF (French Football Federation) was advised by Romain Soiron, Partner at Joffe & Associés, who heads the firm’s sports practice, and Alvyn Gobardhan, Counsel.

BCTG Avocats had already advised Uber Eats in 2019 on the signing of its sponsorship partnership with the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP). “We are delighted to once again support Uber, through its subsidiary Uber Eats, in a partnership that embodies innovation, proximity and sharing, all strong values that we share with our clients,” said Augustin Nicolle, Partner at BCTG Avocats.

The partnership was also arranged with Fuse France, the sports marketing arm of the Omnicom Media Group network, which supports Uber Eats across its entire football strategy.