France

French logistics provider Bigblue has raised 13.66 million euros in a Series A round. The funding will be used to expand further internationally. In order to do so, the company plans to hire 100 new people in the next 12 months.

The French Galeries Lafayette group is about to fully acquire ecommerce platform La Redoute. The retailer group already had more than 50 percent of shared in the platform since 2017. In the summer, this stake will rise to 100 percent.

French fintech Alma has raised 210 million euros in funding. With the capital injection it wants to expand across Europe into Austria, Luxemburg, Portugal, Ireland and the Netherlands. The company is already internationally active in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Marketplace solution provider Mirakl has realized a recurring revenue of 87.44 million euros (100 million dollars) in 2021. The company is now valued at 3.1 billion euros. To support its growth, the company expects to recruit 400 new employees this year.

B2B-marketplace Ankorstore has secured 250 million euros. After only two years of operations, the French company is Europe’s latest unicorn with a value over 1,75 billion euros. The platform wants to use the money to develop their existing services and open new offices in Italy and Spain.

Carrefour, the French supermarket group, is partnering with online grocery marketplace Everli to deliver in their home country France. The companies previously launched partnerships in Italy and Poland. Both brands are also looking to cover future international markets together.

Open-source ecommerce solution has been acquired by MBE (Mail Boxes Etc.) Worldwide, an Italian platform providing shipping and fulfillment. Through the acquisition, MBE will strengthen its position in Europe and Latin America, where most of Prestashop's customers are located.

In a joint statement, several French ministers call for a boycott on Wish. The biggest search engines and comparison apps in France should remove Wish from their search results. The group of ministers are calling for this boycott due to the amount of counterfeit products on the marketplace.

While Amazon has reached many successes throughout Europe, the company was unable to reach its target in France last year. Covid-19 measures and local regulations caused setbacks for the company on several levels.

The ecommerce sector in France generated 112.2 billion euros in 2020. Compared to 2019, internet sales grew by 8.5 percent. This growth was not homogenous across all products, as the sales of services were hit hard due to the pandemic.

The enterprise marketplace software as a service platform provider Mirakl, announced that it has raised 468 million euros in a Series E funding round. This increases the company's value to more than 2,92 billion euros. The financing will be used to rapidly expand Mirakl further.

Dutch discount retailer Zeeman is expanding its online presence in Europe. The retail chain currently has an online store in the Netherlands and Belgium, but will now also launch an ecommerce website in France and in an yet unknown market.

The Carrefour Group will acquire a minority stake in Cajoo, a French startup that delivers groceries in under 15 minutes. For Carrefour, the investment is a way to speed up quick commerce in France. Cajoo operates in ten cities across France and has over 100,000 users.

Omnichannel beauty retailer Sephora has signed an agreement to buy Feelunique, an UK online retailer of prestige beauty products. The transaction is expected to complete later this year.

Payment by installment has become increasingly popular in France. It seems that 30 percent of French consumers have already resorted to installment payments.