It's hard to beat that. In just 11 years of existence, marketplaces editor Mirakl has managed to make its mark, moving from start-up to scale-up status.
A series of fund-raising campaigns over the last few years has enabled the Paris-based company to explode to become one of the best in its field. Now France's fifth-largest start-up, Mirakl intends to continue its ascent and complete its conquest of the e-commerce world.
So what has enabled Mirakl to grow so quickly? Who are its employees? How far can the start-up become a scale-up? Focus on Mirakl, a major player in marketplace solutions.
What is Mirakl?
Launched in 2012, the start-up specialized in software publishing has succeeded in convincing numerous distributors and B2B players. Today, Mirakl has offices in Paris, London, Boston, Singapore and Sydney, over 17 billion dollars in sales in 2020 and increasingly ambitious projects.
The beginning
Before Mirakl, there was Splitgames. In 2005, Philippe Corrot and Adrien Nussenbaum decided to create this online marketplace. The aim was to enable users to sell and trade video games. The concept quickly took shape, customers were won over and the site quickly became a reference in the field.
This performance did not go unnoticed, and in 2008, three years after its launch, Splitgames was acquired by Fnac. The French giant didn't stop there, however, offering the two entrepreneurs the chance to develop the company's marketplace business. The deal worked, and Philippe Corrot and Adrien Nussenbaum work with Fnac for almost three years.
In 2012, the two businessmen decided to launch their own marketplace platform: Mirakl was born. The project was to follow in the footsteps of Splitgames, with a meteoric rise to prominence. Three years after its foundation, Mirakl published its first marketplaces barometer in collaboration with IBM and Sorgem. The results are more than encouraging: 55 customers in 11 different countries and the company is now considered one of the world's leading e-commerce marketplaces.
What is Mirakl?
Mirakl's concept is quite simple: the platform sells its customers a software solution to launch an online marketplace. Thanks to the quality of the services offered by Mirakl, client companies gain visibility on the web and have a high-performance marketplace that sells.
In 2020, Mirakl boasted more than 300 customers worldwide, including well-known giants such as Fnac, Truffaut, Conforama and Carrefour. To be profitable, the scale-up charges its customers a percentage of their marketplace sales.
The strategy works: Mirakl now has a global presence, with 40% of its customers in North America, 40% in Europe and the remaining 20% from the rest of the world.
Innovations to come?
To continue its ascent, Mirakl is on a perpetual quest for improvements and innovations that aim to deliver an ever-improving customer experience. The explosion of e-commerce and its ultra-fast growth means that companies and other start-ups need to analyze and adapt to developments in the field.
That's why Mirakl has decided to enter the payment business by offering a product that simplifies exchanges between foreign currencies. The aim of this project is to enable e-commerce sites to grow faster on an international scale. In an increasingly globalized world, borders are increasingly blurred, and international transactions are commonplace. That's where Mirakl comes in.
Finally, web-based companies are beginning to see the emergence of a new element that may well disrupt our digital lives: artificial intelligence. In recent years, AI-based tools have proliferated, enabling companies to break financial records. That's why Mirakl has launched the acquisition of Paris-based customer experience start-up Target2Sell. Thanks to Target2Sell, Mirakl will be able to offer a platform that responds, in a personalized way, to the needs of its customers.
A meteoric rise
In just 11 years of existence, Mirakl has established itself as a benchmark in the world of e-commerce. The quality of its services and its ability to adapt have enabled it to reach new heights.
Containment and the e-commerce explosion
Since the early 2000s, Internet purchasing has revolutionized customer habits, and local and international exchanges have exploded in number. Websites such as Amazon, eBay or Leboncoin have seen a remarkable increase in visits, much to the delight of buyers and sellers alike.
But it was clearly with the global pandemic and confinement that e-commerce saw its biggest advance. The population, bored and confined, turned to e-commerce platforms to make their purchases. It was at this point that Mirakl really took off, benefiting from various investments that enabled it to take off.
The various fund-raisers
In order to grow, Mirakl had to call on numerous financial backers who believed in its plans. As the company has grown, so have the sums invested:
- shortly after its creation in 2012, Mirakl raised 2.5 million euros;
- historical investors raised 18 million euros in 2015 ;
- In February 2019, Mirakl receives €62 million from venture capital firms. The company joins the Next40.
By 2019, Mirakl was already well established and had taken advantage of the investments it had received to expand. One year later, the infamous Covid-19 pandemic broke out, turning consumer habits upside down. With Mirakl playing a crucial role in e-commerce, investors decided to put their money where their mouth was. injecting large sums :
- In September 2020, Mirakl raised €255 million to become France's 10th unicorn, with a valuation of $1.5 billion;
- a new fundraising round of $555 million is carried out in 2021, raising the unicorn's valuation to $3.5 billion.
Towards an IPO?
The French unicorn has all the ingredients for a successful IPO: an ultra-fast ascent, a valuation in excess of 3.5 billion dollars and the status of France's fifth-largest start-up. All the signs are green, and shareholders the world over are holding their breath. Mirakl's IPO is likely to cause quite a stir, and would enable the company to aim even higher.
However, radio silence from the two Parisian investors. At its latest annual summit, the company presented a number of new features related to its product, with no mention of a possible IPO. It has to be said that the company knows how to be discreet, but it also knows how to play with communication. For example, a huge poster was displayed on the façade of the Palais Brongniart, the former Paris stock exchange.
So it's hard to know the exact date of a possible IPO. According to the company's communications director on Twitter, Mirakl is still waiting for the macroeconomic situation to improve. In France alone, the e-commerce market represented more than 129 billion euros in 2021, a figure that is constantly rising. With sums like these, it's almost certain that Mirakl will go public. It remains to be seen when.
Mirakl: key facts
Workforce
In September 2020, French unicorn Mirakl had 350 employees.
Sales figures
In 2020, Mirakl generated sales of $17 billion, or 3.76 billion euros. An increase of 47% on the previous year.
Initial public offering
Although all the pieces are in place, Mirakl's directors have yet to announce a date for a possible IPO. With a valuation of over $3 billion, a rapidly expanding market and investors from all over the world, there's no doubt that an IPO is imminent.
Business and strategic objectives
Before going public, Mirakl wants to improve its services even further. That's why the two entrepreneurs decided to buy Target2Sell. A way of investing in artificial intelligence and improving the customer experience.
Scalability
You only have to look at the company's meteoric rise to understand its potential. 55 customers in 2012, over 200 in 2019 and more than 300 in 2020. The French start-up has succeeded in winning over companies all over the world thanks to the quality of its services, and has no intention of stopping there. What's more, the boom in e-commerce and Mirakl's ability to adapt should enable it to set new records.
Mantra/Citation CEO
Marketplace and dropship solution.
