Innovation 
Olivier Novasque (TBS 1992)

Can you give us a quick overview of your professional career? After starting my career with the Bouygues Group, I had the chance, in 1995, to immerse myself in the world of financing new technology . At that time, the Internet bubble led to a frenzy of investment in start-ups, including the appearance of the first online B-to-B marketplaces. To facilitate transactions between companies, I had the idea of creating a financial services hub to facilitate, guarantee and finance B-to-B electronic exchanges on these e-marketplaces. Unfortunately, only a few months after the creation of Sidetrade, the Internet bubble burst and brought with it the disappearance of most of these marketplaces. Faced with this unprecedented earthquake, we decided to turn our attention to where the transactions were taking place, i.e. At the heart of companies' information systems. We thus made a radical shift in our model to offer companies an invoice management software accessible from the Internet. It was 2001, Sidetrade was born and with it one of the very first enterprise software packages on the Cloud, and since then my career has become entwined with its history!

How has Sidetrade evolved, and can you tell us about your activity today?

Our platform has gradually been enriched with multiple functionalities to optimise the financial management of the client cycle, from the order to the payment ("Order-to-Cash"). In 2015, we began to leverage the myriad of financial data accumulated in our Cloud to create our AI, "Aimie", capable of predicting the payment behaviour of more than 6 million businesses worldwide and recommending the best dunning strategies ( a structured approach to each stage of financial collection management) ,  to accelerate cash inflows. Today, Sidetrade is a Euronext listed company with over 250 employees in Europe and the US. We have more than 2,700 clients worldwide, including many large international groups.

How did your company cope with the crisis? How has it adapted?

Logically, Sidetrade's sales have been affected  by the health context.

On the other hand, the explosion of teleworking makes it essential to digitalise its management processes. Sidetrade's business is therefore perfectly in line with this major challenge facing financial departments. We have seen a real acceleration in demand for cash generation projects. Also, in less than three days, all our employees had switched to teleworking and I am still impressed by the commitment and creativity they showed in this unprecedented context. I think we came out of this crisis stronger than ever.

In your opinion, how did the start-up / scale-up ecosystem in which you operate experience  this period, supported by substantial financial aid? Was it an  opportunity in the middle of a crisis? 

French start-ups were able to raise €5.4 billion from investors in 2020, a record that places us in second place in Europe; in the first half of 2021 alone, almost €5 billion was raised! So, let's not get into the wrong debate: if the loans and tax credits have been welcomed for many start-ups, talking about a windfall effect would be a misjudgement. 

Is it possible to start a business during these times? What advice would you give to students or alumni of TBS Education who would like to start their own business at this time? 

Many success stories have been born in times of crisis, which are always conducive to profound changes in consumption and business models. On the other hand, with this unprecedented influx of capital, injected without counting the cost by Central Banks, there has never been so much money available to finance good ambitious projects led by ambitious teams. The proliferation of fundraising, from seed to unicorn stage, creates an exceptional environment for all budding entrepreneurs. It is never too early or too late to start a company, the window of opportunity is more than ever at hand, I encourage students or alumni of TBS Education to seize it without delay!