Jean-Jacques Arnal

Managing Partner

2024 - Current

Ava Capital is one of the most active early stage investors in France with over 150 companies in its portfolio. Created by Alexandre Ichaï, Ava Capital provides support even if you haven't won your first battles. We are especially active in deeptech and notably NewSpace, and also in fintech, genAI, and also BtC. At Ava Capital, we not only provide capital but we also help our companies raise funds, hire key people, close deals and meet experts and fellow entrepreneurs through Ava Club.

Founder

2021

Advising entrepreneurs from the idea stage to Series B: - Cash management & fundraising; - Product/market fit & Strategy; - Business development & go-to-market; - Organization; - Hiring and HR process; - Branding; - Culture; I provide a 360 view over your venture and your relationships with your investors and partners, as an operating partner who is able to get both a panoramic vision and be helpul on key execution tasks. My alumni collectively raised north of €70m and founded or co-founded 9 ventures. References upon request: - Fintech start-up accompanied since inception in 2021: product/market fit & pivot in 2023, go-to-market, strategy, sales, fundraising in dilutive and non dilutive, culture. Raised ~€1m in pre seed. - Fintech start-up (FT40), accompanied since early 2022: go-to-market, strategy, sales, fundraising, organization and OKR. Revenues x10 & protifability. Successfuly closed a seed round with a french club-deal and a Tier-1 international VC - NewSpace start-up since early 2022: found first customer and leading investor, helped on strategy, hiring process, key negotiations; - Deeptech start-up in GenAI since 2023: go-to-market and pivot, sales, strategy and fundraising process. - NewSpace start-up since fall 2023: fundraising, strategy and commercial development. Past references: - High end e-commerce website; - Blockchain payment in the Art market; - SaaS start-up: organization & hiring processes, product/market fit, strategy, fundraising; - US AI start-up which successfuly raided from a Tier-1 VC fund + Insurance CVC;

Venture Partner

2021

Coaching start-ups in pre seed for incubators or funds: - Ecole Polytechnique with X'Up (start-up in pre seed stage) ; - Léonard (Vinci, start-up pre-seed or seed) - 212 (CDG early stage VC fund) Architect of BPI France Mercato service teaming up french industrial groups with deeptech start-ups by bringing key employees in operating roles at start-ups.

Founder & Deputy CEO

2018 - 2021

Founder & CEO

2011 - 2018

Exited to Cdiscount at the end of 2018 while #1 app in France for daily services [Moving or fixing stuff, painting, private lessons or tutoring, etc.]. I Created Stootie in 2011 before its US counterpart Zaarly, and Stootie set up a new category of instant and collaborative services with most requests replied in less than a minute. Stootie's was based on mobile-first features: request any kind of service and get an instant reply from people nearby (thanks to instant notifications and geolocation of native mobile apps). This made the app stand apart from websites that could not provide services in real-time. > #42 digital brand in France (Kantar 2019) > Selected and featured by Apple as the Editor's pick from 2014 til 2021 > 2m downloads > 300,000 monthly active > €1m monthly GMV posted when acquired by Cdiscount following 30% mtm growth over 18 months > Ranked in the 120 start-ups that matter in France (future FT120 - 2018) > GMV multiplied by 7 and revenues by 9 in the 12 months before it entered exclusive talks with Cdiscount (Summer 2018), a key European e-commerce player and #2 to Amazon in France. Stootie raised €10m in series A from Cap Décisif Management, BPI, MAIF Avenir and two family offices in 2016. M&A talks with Cdiscount started in July 2018, and became exclusive early August 2018. Following the breakup of two LOIs, Cdiscount acquired the company at the end of 2018.

CEO & Founder

2006 - 2015

Splayce pioneered AI for knowledge work in 2007. Without machine learning and with limited funding, we pivoted from a generalist and holistic approach to a narrower value proposition: an intelligent word processor for the legal world (2009). Splayce's value proposition was to recognize legal references in real time. The software worked under french law (laws, regulations, case law). On the margin of the document on word or a dedicated text editor, Splayce displayed not only the text of the reference but various useful links such as the associated case law. Instantly enhancing your view on a given document, Splayce was foreseeing a future where all knowledge would instantly pop around your text without even being requested. The whole software was working without any transfer of content of the document over the internet for privacy and confidentiality reasons. > A very talented team later hired by the leading software vendor Septeo and which now leads their AI efforts or have joined leading AI actors in France like Dataiku > 200 consumers including the french National Assembly, tier-1 law firms, university professors and their students > Exclusive distribution rights to the leading legal software editor in France, Septeo (SECIB). > national award from the French Ministry of Economy in 2009 and another in late 2014 for www.toutelaloi.fr, a website making it easier to access to the french law.

Consultant and production manager

2004 - 2006

Consultant on Atiq Rahimi's Crimes and Punishments. Obtained EU MEDIA subvention in 2006. Script doctor on Delirium Tremens' adaptation into french (2005) ; Production Manager on Michko Netchak, Gilles Hertzog and Bernard-Henri Lévy's American Vertigo shot in the USA (2004) ; Production assistant on Atiq Rahimi's feature film Earth and Ashes shot in Afghanistan (2003) ; Production assistant on a 120' tv documentary shot in Morocco (2004-2005) ;