Once more, XAnge backs AB Tasty for its serie C to tackle the US market
XAnge as historical partner
Back in 2014, we were immediately impressed by the team’s sharp execution. Fast forward to 2017, the track record speaks for itself: even the american giant Optimizely ($146.2M in funding) opened and then had to close its French offices — is it correlated with AB Tasty’s success? We like to believe it is — keeping the largest US competitor at bay is not a small feat for european startups. The well-oiled commercial rollout as well as the constant product upgrades are the reasons for which XAnge invested in all three rounds up to date: series A in 2014, series B in 2016 and Series C in 2017. This bodes well with XAnge’s interest in software Saas companies — especially those with triple digit revenues growth year on year.
A complementary team since the beginning
Alix and Remi, the co-founders, are childhood friends who originally come from the tough and high-adrenaline world of web analytics & big data agencies. They both love testing new ideas and iterating constantly. One of the consequences is that the product is constantly improving with the ability to AB test on the web but also within mobile applications.
They also share a passion for efficiency and expect the same from their investors. Both in their 30s, they prefer employing young people sharing the same values and energy as theirs, and to spend time onboarding and training them, rather than more experimented and costly people. Thanks to their power of conviction, they managed to get impressive people on their board, such as Thierry Petit, CEO of showroomprivé.com
A unique company culture
With an office located in the heart of Paris and a friendly atmosphere, all 100 employees work hand in hand at making AB Tasty successful. The company culture has been a major focus for both cofounders, and this not only applies to Paris, but to all of the 9 offices around the world. Want to know their trick? When a new person joins the AB Tasty adventure — investor or employee — upon arrival, they get a personalized mug with their name on it. They even bought the machine to be able to make these personalized mugs within the AB Tasty Parisian offices! Joke aside, this company culture has been rewarded in 2017 when AB Tasty came in 4th in the Great Place to Work ranking.
Next step: the US
Going to the US is a major decision that Remi and Alix made after careful thinking and testing (what else would we expect). Remi has now been living over there for a couple of months to get a first-hand experience of US customers expectations. His take-away is that AB Tasty could well become a major player in the US by focusing on its differentiation: providing customers with a single solution to understand the user behavior (think Hotjar, the “what do my users do?” question) and an action tool (think Optimizely, the “what to do?” question) — all in one single place!
